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STANDARD 


I 

w 


QLRATURE series 


THE PILOT 




BY 


NIMORE COOPER 



CONDENSED FOR USE IN SCHOOLS 
WITH INTRODUCTORY AND EXPLANATORY NOTES 




UNIVERSITY PUBLISHING COMPANY 

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Published semi-monthly, except July and August. Entered as seoond-elass matter at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., Dec. 28, 1895. 



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STANDARD LITERATURE SERIES 


O 

THE PILOT 

» 


BY 

J; FENIMORE COOPER 

i* 



CONDENSED FOR USE IN SCHOOLS. WITH AN 
INTRODUCTION AND EXPLANATORY NOTES 



NEW YORK AND NEW ORLEANS 

UNIVERSITY PUBLISHING COMPANY 

1896 


T'Z- 3 , 


Copy right, 1895 , by 

UNIVERSITY PUBLISHING COMPANY 


* ** 1665 


Press of J. J. Little & Co. 
Astor Place, New York 


INTRODUCTION. 


“ The Pilot,” published in 1823, reveals Cooper’s intimate knowledge 
of nautical affairs. His six years’ service as midshipman brought to 
him a wealth of experience, which he here turns to good account. The 
plot of “ The Pilot” is more complex than that of his other works, and 
the character sketches are done with a free, bold hand, particularly that 
of John Paul Jones. 

The opening of the novel touches upon the impressment of seamen 
in the time of the American Revolution. It was by means of this 
enforced service that England manned her fleets, and later it became 
one of the causes of the war with America, in 1812. 

It should be remembered that the hero’s name was John Paul; but, 
owing to family troubles, he assumed the name of Jones. He was born 
July 6, 1747, at Kirkbean, Scotland. At the age of twelve he became 
an apprentice to a merchant in the American trade. Later he was 
engaged as chief mate on a vessel carrying slaves from Africa, but he 
became disgusted and left. At the breaking out of the Revolution he 
was living in Virginia. He was commissioned by Congress, December 7, 
1775, and appointed senior lieutenant on the Alfred. As commander 
of the Ranger he sailed to France, bearing the news of Burgoyne’s sur- 
render. The most noted vessel that he commanded was the Bon Homme 
Richard, which captured the British ship Serapis in a fight the most 
desperate in naval chronicles. Congress gave him a vote of thanks for 
his “zeal, prudence, and intrepidity.” He died in Paris, July 17, 1792. 

John Paul Jones brought to the flag on the sea the same glory that 
crowned the efforts of Washington, and the bold sailor must ever be 
kept in loving remembrance. 

The spirit of renewed Americanism will turn to the works of Cooper, 
who was a genuine American, with increased interest ; for he depicts 
the labors of those who fought, bled, and died that America might be 
numbered among the nations of the earth. 

The many nautical terms necessary in a work of this character are 
explained in a glossary to be found in the back of the book. 


4 


INTRODUCTION. 


BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 

James Fenimore Cooper was born in Burlington, New Jersey, in 1789, 
the year which witnessed the inauguration of Washington as President. 
Cooper’s boyhood was spent at Cooperstown, New York, a village founded 
by his father in 1786. After studying three years at Yale, he entered the 
navy as midshipman, returning after a service of six years. His knowl- 
edge of the sea was put to good use in many of the stories he afterward 
wrote. 

“ The Spy,” his first popular novel, appeared in 1821. It leaped at 
once into popular favor, and was republished in Europe in many transla- 
tions. This story, as well as “ The Pioneers,” published the next year, 
was thoroughly American, and Cooper from this time occupied as his own 
the field of wild life in America. 

His novels were full of romantic interest, and showed the public that 
American scenery and life furnished as good a foundation for fiction as 
the castles of Europe. “ The Last of the Mohicans ” (1826) is one of the 
best of the remarkable group of stories called The Leatherstocking 
Tales. Cooper was a genuine American, and to him more than any 
other author is due the increasing attention to home subjects and heroes. 

Half of Cooper’s better works were devoted to the sea, the most success- 
ful being “The Pilot” (1823) and “The Bed Rover” (1827). 

“The Pathfinder” appeared in 1840, “The Deerslayer” in 1841, and 
“Afloat and Ashore” in 1844. His “Naval History of the United 
States ” is a series of biographies of naval officers. His last book, “ The 
Ways of the Hour,” attacked the system of trial by jury somewhat after 
the style adopted later in Charles Reade’s works. 

In estimating Cooper’s genius, we must remember he was a pioneer in 
novel writing. He won high praise from such critical authorities as 
Bryant and Prescott. He surpassed in the description of Indian life and 
the narration of maritime adventures. 

His style is dramatic, pure, and scholarly. 


THE PILOT. 


CHAPTER I. 

THE CONSORTS. 

Soon after the events of the Revolution had involved the 
kingdoms of France and Spain, and the republic of Holland, 
in our quarrel, a group of laborers was collected in a field 
that lay exposed to the winds of the ocean, on the northeasterr 
coast of England. These men were lightening their toil, and 
cheering the gloom of a day in December, by uttering their 
crude opinions on the political aspects of the times. The 
fact that England was engaged in a war with some of her 
dependencies on the other side of the Atlantic, had long been 
known to them ; but now that nations with whom she had 
been used to battle were armed against her in the quarrel, 
the din of war had disturbed the quiet even of these secluded 
and illiterate 1 rustics. 

To the utter amazement of every individual present, a small 
vessel was seen moving slowly round a point of land that 
formed one of the sides of the little bay, of which the field the 
laborers were in composed the other. There was something 
very peculiar in the externals of this unusual visitor, which 
added in no small degree to the surprise created by her appear- 
ance in that retired place. 

The little schooner held her way among the rocks and sand- 
pits, making such slight deviations 2 in her course as proved 
her to be under the direction of one who knew his danger, 

2 wanderings or variations. 


1 uneducated. 


6 


THE PILOT. 


until she had entered as far into the hay as prudence could at 
all justify, when her canvas was gathered into folds, and the 
vessel, after rolling for a few minutes on the long billows that 
hove in from the ocean, swung round in the currents of the 
tide and was held by her anchor. 

A few dark hints were hazarded on the materiality 1 of her 
construction, for nothing of artificial formation, as it was 
urged, would be ventured by men in such a dangerous place, 
at a time when even the most inexperienced landsman was 
enabled to foretell the certain gale. The Scotchman had begun 
to express this sentiment warily and with reverence, when the 
child of Erin interrupted him by exclaiming : 

“ Faith, there's two of them — a big and a little ! Sure the 
bogles 2 of the sea likes good company the same as any other 
Christians ! " 

“l should na wonder if she carried King George's commis- 
sion aboot her. Weel, weel, I wull journey upward to the town, 
and ha' a crack wi ' 3 the good mon ; for they craft have a suspee- 
cious aspect, and the sma' bit thing w'uld nab a mon quite easy, 
and the big ane w'uld hold us a' and no feel we war' in her." 

This sagacious warning caused a general movement in the 
party, for the intelligence of a hot press 4 was among the 
rumors of the times. The husbandmen collected their imple- 
ments of labor, and retired homeward ; and though many a 
curious eye was bent on the movements of the vessels from the 
distant hills, but very few of those not immediately interested 
in the mysterious visitors ventured to approach the little rocky 
cliffs that lined the bay. 

The vessel that occasioned these cautious movements was a 
gallant ship, whose huge hull, lofty masts, and square yards 
loomed in the evening's haze, above the sea, like a distant 
mountain rising from the deep. She carried but little sail, 

1 the vessel was real and not a spectral 3 a talk with, 

one. 4 press-gang, forcing men into military or 

a bogies, spectres. naval service. 


THE CONSORTS. 


7 


and though she warily avoided the near approach to the land 
that the schooner had attempted, the similarity of their move- 
ments was sufficiently apparent to warrant the conjecture 1 
that they were employed on the same duty. The frigate 
floated across the entrance of the little bay, majestically in the 
tide, with barely enough motion through the water to govern 
her movements, until she arrived opposite the place where 
her consort lay. 

A numerous crew manned the barge that was lowered from 
the frigate, which, after receiving an officer with an attendant 
youth, left the ship, and moved with a measured stroke of its 
oars directly toward the head of the bay. As it passed at a 
short distance from the schooner, a light whale-boat, pulled 
by four athletic men, shot from her side, and crossed her 
course with a wonderful velocity. 

As the boats approached each other, the men, in obedience 
to signals from their officers, suspended their efforts, and for 
a few minutes they floated at rest, during which time there 
was the following dialogue : 

“It's close work, Mr. Griffith, when a man rides to a single 
anchor in a place like this, and at such a nightfall. What 
are the orders ? ” 

“ I shall pull into the surf and let go a grapnel ; 2 you will 
take Mr. Merry into your whale-boat, and try to drive her 
through the breakers on the beach.” 

“ Beach ! ” retorted Barnstable ; “ do you call a perpendicu- 
lar rock of a hundred feet in height a beach ? ” 

“ We shall not dispute about terms,” said Griffith, smiling, 
“ but you must manage to get on the shore. We have seen the 
signal from the land, and know that the pilot, whom we have 
so long expected, is ready to come off.” 

Barnstable shook his head with a grave air, as he muttered 
to himself : “ This is droll navigation ; first we run into an 
unfrequented bay that is full of rocks, and sand-pits, and 

a a small anchor with claws. 


1 belief, surmise. 


8 


THE PILOT. 


shoals, and then we get off our pilot. But how am I to know 
him ? 99 

“ Merry will give you the password, and tell you where to 
look for him. I would land myself, hut my orders forbid it. 
If you meet with difficulties, show three oar-blades in a row, 
and I will pull in to your assistance. Three oars on end, and 
a pistol, will bring the fire of my muskets, and the signal 
repeated from the barge will draw a shot from the ship.” 

“ I thank you, I thank you,” said Barnstable, carelessly ; 
“ I believe I can fight my own battles against all the enemies 
we are likely to fall in with on this coast. But the old man is 
surely mad. I would ” 

“ You would obey his orders if he were here, and you will 
now please to obey mine,” said Griffith, in a tone that the 
friendly expression of his eye contradicted. “ Pull in, and 
keep a lookout for a small man in a drab pea-jacket. Merry 
will give you the word ; if he answer it, bring him off to the 
barge.” 

The light vessel shot away from her companion ; she was 
suddenly turned, and, dashing over broken waves, was run 
upon a spot where a landing could be effected in safety. 

In the meantime, the barge followed these movements, and 
when the whale-boat was observed to be drawn up alongside of 
a rock, the promised grapnel was cast into the water, and her 
crew deliberately proceeded to get their firearms in a state for 
immediate service. 


CHAPTER II. 

THE QUEST AXD RETURN". 

When the whale-boat obtained the position we have de- 
scribed, the young lieutenant, who was usually addressed by 
the title of captain, stepped on the rocks, followed by the 


THE QUEST AND RETURN. 


9 


youthful midshipman who had quitted the barge to aid in 
the hazardous 1 duty of their expedition. 

“ Come, gather your limbs together/" said Barnstable, “and 
try if you can walk on terra firma* Master Coffin/" 

Laying his hand on a projection of the rock above him, 
Barnstable swung himself forward, and following this move- 
ment with a desperate leap or two, he stood at once on the 
brow of the cliff. His cockswain very deliberately raised the 
midshipman after his officer, and soon placed himself by his 
side. 

When they reached the level land that lay above the cliffs 
and began to inquire into the surrounding scenery, the ad- 
venturers discovered a cultivated country, divided in the 
usual manner by hedges and walls. Only one habitation for 
man, however, and that a small, dilapidated 3 cottage, stood 
within a mile of them, most of the dwellings being placed as 
far as convenience would permit from the fogs and damps of 
the ocean. 

“ Here seems to be neither anything to apprehend, nor the 
object of our search/" said Barnstable, when he had taken the 
whole view in his survey ; “I fear we have landed to no pur- 
pose, Mr. Merry. What say you, Long Tom ; see you what 
we want ?"" 

“I see no pilot, sir/" returned the cockswain. 

Barnstable replied, “I see some one approaching behind 
the hedge. Look to your arms, Mr. Merry ; the first thing we 
hear may be a shot."" 

“Not from that cruiser/" cried the thoughtless lad ; “he 
is a younker/ like myself, and would hardly dare run down 
upon such a formidable 6 force as we muster."" 

“You say true, boy/" returned Barnstable, relinquishing 
the grasp he held on his pistol. “ He comes on with caution, 
as if afraid. He is small, and is in drab, though I should 


1 dangerous. 

2 solid earth. 


3 partially ruined. 

4 stripling. 


6 difficult to overcome. 


10 


THE PILOT. 


hardly call it a pea-jacket — and yet he may be our man. 
Stand you both here, while I go and hail him.” 

As Barnstable walked rapidly toward the hedge, the stran- 
ger stopped suddenly, and seemed to be in doubt whether to 
advance or retreat. Before he had decided on either, the 
active sailor was within a few feet of him. 

“ Pray, sir,” said Barnstable, “ what water have we in 
this bay ? ” 

The slight form of the stranger started at this question, 
and he shrunk aside involuntarily, as if to conceal his features, 
before he answered, in a voice that was barely audible : 

“ I should think it would be the water of the German 
Ocean.” 

“ Indeed ! You must have passed no small part of your 
shore life in the study of geography, to be so well informed,” 
returned the lieutenant; “perhaps, sir, your cunning is also 
equal to telling me how long we shall sojourn together, if I 
make you a prisoner, in order to enjoy the benefit of your 
wit ? ” 

“ Barnstable ! dear Barnstable ! would you harm me ? ” 

The sailor recoiled several feet at this unexpected appeal, 
and, rubbing his eyes, he threw his cap from his head, before 
he cried : 

“What do I hear, and what do I see ! There lies the 
Ariel, and yonder is the frigate. Can this be Katherine 
Plowden ?” 

His doubts, if any remained, were soon removed ; for the 
stranger sank on the bank at her side, in an attitude in which 
female bashfulness was beautifully contrasted with her attire, 
and gave vent to her mirth in an uncontrollable burst of 
merriment. 

From that moment, all thoughts of his duty, and the pilot, 
or even of the Ariel, appeared to be banished from the mind 
of the seaman, who sprang to her side, and joined in her mirth, 
though he hardly knew why or wherefore. 


THE QUEST AND RETURN. 


11 


When the diverted girl had in some degree recovered her 
composure, she turned to her companion and said : 

“ But this is not only silly, but cruel to others. I owe you 
an explanation of my unexpected appearance, and perhaps, 
also, of my extraordinary attire. You are not usually selfish, 
Barnstable ; would you have me forgetful of the happiness of 
others ? ” 

“ Of whom do you speak ?” 

“My poor, devoted cousin. I heard that two vessels an- 
swering the description of the frigate and the Ariel were seen 
hovering on the coast, and I determined at once to have a 
communication with you. I have followed your movements 
for a week, in this dress, but have been unsuccessful till now. 
To-day I observed you to approach nearer to the shore than 
usual, and happily, by being adventurous, I have been 
successful.” 

“ Ay, God knows we are near enough to the land ! ” 

“I thought that if Griffith and you could learn our situa- 
tion, you might be tempted to hazard a little to redeem us 
from our thraldom . 1 In this paper I have prepared such an 
account as will, I trust, excite all your chivalry , 2 and by which 
you may govern your movements.” 

“ Our movements ! ” interrupted Barnstable. “ You will 
pilot us in person.” 

“Then there's two of them!” said a, hoarse voice near 
them. 

The alarmed female shrieked as she recovered her feet, but 
she still adhered, with instinctive dependence, to the side of her 
lover. Barnstable, who recognized the tones of his cockswain, 
bent an angry brow on the sober visage that was peering at 
them above the hedge, and demanded the meaning of the 
interruption. 

“ I showed you how to knot a reef -point, and pass a gasket , 3 
Captain Barnstable, nor do I believe you could even take two 

1 bondage. 2 valor, courtesy. 3 a cord for binding or tying a sail. 


12 


THE PILOT. 


half -hitches when yon first came aboard of the Spalmacitty. 
These be things that a man is soon expert in, but it takes the 
time of his natural life to larn to know the weather. There 
be streaked windfalls in the offing, that speak as plainly, to 
all that see them, and know God’s language in the clouds, as 
ever you spoke through a trumpet, to shorten sail ; besides, 
sir, don’t you hear the sea moaning, as if it knew the hour 
was at hand when it was to wake up from its sleep ? ” 

“ Ay, Tom,” returned his officer, walking to the edge of the 
cliffs, and throwing a seaman’s glance at the gloomy ocean, 
“ ’tis a threatening night indeed ; but this pilot must be 
had, and ” 

“ Is that the man ? ” interrupted the cockswain, pointing 
toward a man who was standing not far from them, an atten- 
tive observer of their proceedings, at the same time that he 
was narrowly watched himself by the young midshipman. 
“ God send that he knows his trade well, for the bottom of a 
ship will need eyes to find its road out of this wild anchorage ! ” 

“ That must indeed be the man,” exclaimed Barnstable, at 
once recalled to his duty. He then held a short dialogue with 
his female companion, whom he left concealed in the hedge, 
and proceeded to address the stranger. When near enough to 
be heard, the commander of the schooner demanded : 

“ What water have you in this bay ? ” 

The stranger, who seemed to expect the question, answered 
without hesitation : 

“ Enough to take all out in safety who have entered with 
confidence.” 

“You are the man I seek,” cried Barnstable ; “are you 
ready to go off ? ” 

“ Both ready and willing,” returned the pilot, “ and there 
is need of haste. I would give the best hundred guineas that 
ever were coined for two hours’ more use of the sun which has 
left us, or even half the time of this fading twilight.” 

“Think you our situation so bad ?” said the lieutenant. 


THE QUEST AND RETURN. 


13 


“Follow this gentleman to the boat, then ; I will join you by 
the time you can descend the cliffs. ” 

The young officer retraced his steps impatiently toward his 
mistress, and the pilot drew the leathern belt of his pea- 
jacket mechanically around his body, as he followed the mid- 
shipman and the cockswain to their boat. 

Barnstable found the disguised female who had announced 
herself as Katherine Plowden awaiting his return with in- 
tense anxiety depicted on every feature of her intelligent 
countenance. 

As he felt the responsibility of his situation, the young man 
hastily drew an arm of the apparent boy, forgetful of her 
disguise, through his own, and led her forward. 

“ Come, Katherine,” he said, “ the time urges to be prompt. 
'T would be madness to tempt your fate again. My vessel shall 
protect you till your cousin is redeemed ; and then, remember, 
T have a claim on you for life. You shall be commander of 
the Ariel.” 

“ I thank you, thank you, Barnstable, but distrust my 
abilities to fill such a station,” she said, laughing, though the 
color that again crossed her youthful features was like the 
glow of a summer's sunset, and even her eyes seemed to reflect 
their tints. “ Do not mistake me, saucy one. If I have done 
more than my sex will warrant, remember it was through a 
holy motive ; and if I have more than a woman's enterprise, 
it must be to fit me for, and to keep me worthy of, being one 
day your wife.” 

As she uttered these words, she turned and disappeared, 
with a rapidity that eluded 1 his attempt to detain her, behind 
an angle of the hedge that was near them. 

Barnstable was about to pursue, when the air lighted with 
a sudden flash, and the bellowing report of a cannon rolled 
along the cliffs. 

Notwithstanding the heavy and dangerous surf that was 

i escaped. 


14 


THE PILOT. 


beginning to tumble upon the rocks in an alarming manner, 
the startled seamen succeeded in urging their light boat oyer 
the waves, and in a few seconds were without the point where 
danger was most to be apprehended. 

In a few seconds the barge and whale-boat were rolling by 
each other's side. The midshipman stepped lightly from the 
whale-boat to the barge, whither the pilot had already pre- 
ceded him, and sank by the side of Griffith. 

The boats were separating, and the splash of the oars was 
already heard, when the voice of the pilot was for the first 
time raised in earnest. 

“Hold ! " he cried ; “hold water, I bid ye !" 

The men ceased their efforts at the commanding tones of 
his voice, and, turning toward the whale-boat, he continued : 

“ You will get your schooner under way immediately, 
Captain Barnstable, and sweep into the offing with as little 
delay as possible. Keep the ship well open from the northern 
headland, and, as you pass us, come within hail." 

“ This is a clean chart and plain sailing, Mr. Pilot," returned 
Barnstable ; “ but who is to justify my moving without orders 
from Captain Munson ? I have it in black and white, to run 
the Ariel into this feather-bed sort of a place, and I must 
at least have it by signal or word of mouth from my betters, 
before my cut-water curls another wave. The road may be as 
hard to find going out as it was coming in — and then I had 
daylight as well as your written directions to steer by." 

“Would you lie there to perish on such a night ?" said the 
pilot, sternly. “Two hours hence, this heavy swell will break 
where your vessel now rides so quietly." 

“ There we think exactly alike ; but, if I get drowned now, 
I am drowned according to orders ; whereas, if I knock a 
plank out of the schooner's bottom, by following your direc- 
tions, 'twill be a hole to let in mutiny, as well as sea water. 
How do I know but the old man wants another pilot or two ?" 

“ That's philosophy," muttered the cockswain of the whale- 


THE QUEST AND RETURN. 


15 


boat, in a voice that was audible ; “ but it's a hard strain on a 
man’s conscience to hold on in such an anchorage ! ” 

“ Then keep your anchor down and follow it to the bottom,” 
said the pilot to himself ; “ it’s worse to contend with a fool 
than a gale of wind.” 

“ No, no, sir ; no fool, neither,” interrupted Griffith. “ Barn- 
stable does not deserve that epithet, though he certainly car- 
ries the point of duty to the extreme. Heave up at once, Mr. 
Barnstable, and get out of this bay as fast as possible.” 

“ Ah, you don’t give that order with half the pleasure with 
which I shall execute it ! Pull away, boys ! The Ari^l shall 
never lay her bones in such. a hard bed, if I can help it.” 

As the commander of the schooner uttered these words with 
a cheering voice, his men spontaneously 1 shouted, and the 
whale-boat darted away from her companion, and was soon lost 
in the gloomy shadows cast from the cliffs. 

In the meantime, the oarsmen of the barge were not idle, 
but by strenuous efforts they forced the heavy boat rapidly 
through the water, and in a few minutes she ran alongside of 
the frigate. 

During this period, the pilot, in a voice which had lost all 
the startling fierceness and authority it had manifested in his 
short dialogue with Barnstable, requested Griffith to repeat 
to him slowly the names of the officers that belonged to the 
ship. When the young lieutenant had complied with his 
request, he observed to his companion : 

“ All good men and true, Mr. Pilot. Know you what water 
we draw ? ” 

“’Tis a frigate’s draught, and I shall endeavor to keep you 
in four fathoms ; less than that would be dangerous.” 

“ She’s a sweet boat !” said Griffith, “ and minds her helm 
as a marine watches the eye of his sergeant at a drill ; but you 
must give her room in stays, for she fore-reaches, as if she 
would put out the wind’s eye.” 

1 of one’s own accord. 


16 


THE PILOT. 


The pilot attended with a practised ear to this description 
of the qualities of the ship that he was about to attempt to 
extricate 1 from an extremely dangerous situation. Not a sylla- 
ble was lost on him ; and when Griffith ended, he remarked, 
with the singular coldness that pervaded his manner : 

“ That is both a good and a bad quality in a narrow channel. 
I fear it will be the latter to-night, when we shall require to 
have the ship in leading-strings.” 

He threw himself back on the cushions when he had said 
this ; Griffith smothered his feelings so far as to be silent, and 
they ascended the side of the vessel in apparent cordiality. 

The frigate was already riding on lengthened seas, that 
rolled in from the ocean at each successive moment with in- 
creasing violence, though her topsails still hung supinely 2 from 
her yards ; the air being unable to shake the heavy canvas of 
which they were composed. 

The only sounds that were audible, when Griffith and the 
pilot had ascended to the gangway of the frigate, were pro- 
duced by the sullen dashing of the sea against the massive 
bows of the ship, and the shrill whistle of the boatswain's mate 
as he recalled the side-boys to do honor to the entrance of the 
first lieutenant and his companion. 

Large groups of men were collected in the gangways, around 
the mainmast, and on the booms of the vessel, whose faces 
were distinctly visible, while numerous figures lying along the 
lower yards expressed by their attitude the interest they took 
in the arrival of the boat. 

Though such crowds were collected in other parts of the 
vessel, the quarter-deck was occupied only by the officers, who 
were disposed according to their several ranks, and were equally 
silent and attentive as the remainder of the crew. In front 
stood a small collection of young men, who by their similarity 
of dress were equals and companions of Griffith, though his 
juniors in rank. On the opposite side was a larger assemblage 

* set free. a carelessly. 


THE QUEST AND RETURN. 


17 


of youths, who claimed Mr. Merry as their fellow. Around 
the capstan three or four figures were standing, one of whom 
wore a coat of blue with the scarlet facings of a soldier, and 
another the black vestments of the ship’s chaplain. Behind 
these, and nearer the passage to the cabin from which he had 
just ascended, stood the tall, erect form of the commander of 
the vessel. 

After a brief salutation between Griffith and the junior offi- 
cers, the former advanced, followed slowly by the pilot, to the 
place where he was expected by his veteran commander. The 
young man removed his hat entirely, as he bowed with a little 
more than his usual ceremony, and said : 

“We have succeeded, sir, though not without more difficulty 
and delay than we anticipated.” 

“ But you have not brought off the pilot,” said the captain, 
“and without him, all our risks and troubles have been in 
vain.” 

“He is here,” said Griffith, stepping aside and extending 
his arm toward the man that stood behind him, wrapped to 
the chin in his coarse pea-jacket, and his face shadowed by the 
falling rim of a large hat that had seen much and hard service. 

“ This !” exclaimed the captain ; “then there is a sad mis- 
take ; this is not the man I would have seen, nor can another 
supply his place.” 

“ I know not whom you expected, Captain Munson,” said 
the stranger, in a low, quiet voice ; “ but if you have not for- 
gotten the day when a very different flag from that emblem of 
tyranny that now hangs ^>ver your taffrail was first spread to 
the wind, you may remember the hand that raised it.” 

“ Bring here the light ! ” exclaimed the commander, hastily. 

When the lantern was extended towards the pilot, and the 
glare fell strong upon his features. Captain Munson started, as 
he beheld the calm blue eye that met his gaze, and the com- 
posed but pallid countenance of the other. Involuntarily rais- 
ing his hat and baring his silver locks, the veteran cried : 

3 


18 


THE PILOT. 


“ It is he ! though so changed ” 

“ That his enemies do not know him,” interrupted the pilot, 
quickly ; then touching the other by the arm, as he led him 
aside, he continued in a lower tone, “ Neither must his friends, 
until the proper hour shall arrive.” 


CHAPTER III. 

THE GALE AND THE RESCUE. 

It has been already explained to the reader that there were 
threatening symptoms in the appearance of the weather to 
create serious forebodings of evil in the breast of a seaman. 

The higher officers were collected around the capstan, en- 
gaged in earnest discourse about their situation and prospects, 
while some of the oldest and most favored seamen would extend 
their short walk to the hallowed precincts of the quarter-deck, 
to catch with greedy ears the opinions that fell from their 
superiors. 

A loud laugh was created among the listeners, and it appar- 
ently produced the effect that was so long anxiously desired, 
by putting an end to the mysterious conference between the 
captain and the pilot. As the former came ‘forward toward 
the expecting crew, he said, in the composed steady manner 
that formed the principal trait in his character : 

“ Get the anchor, Mr. Griffith, and make sail on the ship ; 
the hour has arrived when we must b§ moving.” 

The cheerful “ Ay, ay, sir ! ” of the young lieutenant was 
hardly uttered, before the cries of half a dozen midshipmen 
were heard summoning the boatswain and his mates to their 
duty. 

There was a general movement in the living masses that 
clustered around the mainmast, on the booms, and in the 
gangways, though their habits of discipline held the crew a 


THE GALE AND THE RESCUE. 


19 


moment longer in suspense. The silence was first broken by 
the sound of the boatswain's whistle, followed by the hoarse 
cry of “ All hands, up anchor, ahoy !” 

The change produced by the customary summons was 
magical. 

Human beings sprang out from between the guns, rushed 
up the hatches, threw themselves with careless activity from 
the booms, gathered from every quarter so rapidly, that in an 
instant the deck of the frigate was alive with men. 

The captain and the pilot alone remained passive in this 
scene of general exertion ; for apprehension had even stimu- 
lated that class of officers which is called “idlers” to unusual 
activity, though frequently reminded by their more experi- 
enced messmates that instead of aiding, they were retarding 
the duty of the vessel. The bustle, however, gradually ceased, 
and in a few minutes the same silence pervaded the ship as 
before. 

“We are brought to, sir,” said Griffith, who stood overlook- 
ing the scene, holding in one hand a short speaking-trumpet, 
and grasping with the other one of the shrouds of the ship. 

“ Heave round, sir,” was the calm reply. 

“ Heave round ! ” repeated Griffith, aloud. 

“ Heave round ! ” echoed a dozen eager voices at once, and 
the lively strains of a fife struck up a brisk air to enliven the 
labor. 

“ Heave and pull ! ” cried Griffith ; when the quivering 
notes of the whistle were again succeeded by a general stillness 
in the vessel. 

“ What is to be done now, sir ?” continued the lieutenant; 
“ shall we trip the anchor ? There seems not a breath of air ; 
and, as the tide runs slack, I doubt whether the sea does not 
heave the ship ashore.” • 

“ I leave all to the pilot,” said the captain, after he had 
stood a short time by the side of Griffith, anxiously studying 
the heavens and the v ocean, “ What say you, Mr. Gray ? ” 


20 


THE PILOT. 


“ There is much to fear from this heavy ground -swell,” he 
said, “but there is certain destruction to us if the gale that 
is brewing in the east finds us waiting its fury in this wild 
anchorage.” 

“ You say no more, sir, than the youngest boy in the ship 
can see for himself,” said Griffith. “ Ha ! there comes the 
schooner ! ” 

The dashing of the long sweeps in the water was now 
plainly audible, and the little Ariel was seen through the 
gloom, moving heavily under their feeble impulse. As she 
passed slowly under the stern of the frigate, the cheerful voice 
of Barnstable was first heard opening the communication be- 
tween them. 

“ Here’s a night for spectacles, Captain Munson,” he cried, 
“ but I thought I heard your fife, sir. I trust in God, you do 
not mean to ride it out here till morning ? ” 

“ Take your directions from the pilot, Mr. Barnstable,” re- 
turned his commanding officer, “and follow them strictly and 
to the letter.” 

A death-like silence in both vessels succeeded this order ; 
for all seemed to listen eagerly to catch the words that fell 
from the man on whom, even the boys now felt, depended 
their only hopes for safety. 

“ Your sweeps will soon be of no service to you,” he said, 
“ against the sea that begins to heave in ; but your light sails 
will help them to get you out. So long as you can head east- 
and-by-north, you are doing well, and you can stand on till 
you open the light from that northern headland, when you 
can heave-to and fire a gun ; but if, as I dread, you are 
struck aback before you open the light, you must trust to 
your lead on the larboard tack ; but beware, with your head 
to the southward, for no lead will serve you there.” 

“I can walk over the same ground on one tack as on the 
other,” said Barnstable, “and make both legs of a length.” 

“It will not do,” returned the pilot. “If you fall oft a 


THE GALE AND THE RESCUE. 


21 


point to starboard from east-and-by-north, in going large, you 
will find both rocks and points of shoals to bring you up ; and 
beware, as I tell you, of the starboard tack.” 

“ And how shall I find my way ? You will let me trust to 
neither time, lead, nor log.” 

“ You must trust to a quick eye and a ready hand. The 
breakers only will show you the dangers, when you are not 
able to make out the bearings of the land. Tack in season, 
sir, and don't spare the lead when you head to-port.” 

“ Ay, ay,” returned Barnstable, in a low, muttering voice. 
“ This is a sort of blind navigation with a vengeance, and all 
for no purpose that I can see. Had I not better play jackal, 
and try and feel the way for you ? ” 

“ I thank you,” said the pilot ; “ the offer is generous, but 
would avail us nothing. I have the advantage of knowing 
the ground well, and must trust to my memory and God's 
good favor. Make sail, make sail, sir ; and, if you succeed, 
we will venture to break ground.” 

The order was promptly obeyed, and in a very short time 
the Ariel was covered with canvas. 

Griffith had listened to the foregoing dialogue, like the rest 
of the junior officers, in profound silence ; but when the Ariel 
began to grow indistinct to the eye, he cried : 

“She slips off, like a vessel from the stocks ! Shall I trip 
the anchor, sir, and follow ? ” 

“We have no choice,” replied the captain. “You hear 
the question, Mr. Gray ? Shall we let go the bottom ?” 

“ It must be done. Captain Munson ; we may want more 
drift than the rest of this tide to get us to a place of safety,” 
said the pilot. “ I would give five years from a life that I 
know will be short, if the ship lay one mile farther seaward.” 

This remark was unheard by all except the commander of 
the frigate, who again walked aside with the pilot, where they 
resumed their mysterious communications. Griffith gave forth 
from his trumpet the command to “heave away!” Again 


22 


THE PILOT. 


the strains of the fife were followed by the tread of men at the 
capstan. 

“ Ready the fore-royal ! ” cried a shrill voice, as if from the 
clouds. “ Ready the fore-yard !” uttered the hoarser tones of 
a seaman beneath him. “ All ready aft, sir ! 33 cried a third, 
from another quarter ; and in a few moments the order was 
given to “ let fall.” 

The little light which fell from the sky was now excluded 
by the falling canvas, and a deeper gloom was cast athwart the 
decks of the ship, that served to render the brilliancy of the 
lanterns even vivid, while it gave to objects out-board a more 
appalling and dreary appearance than before. 

Every individual, except the commander and his associate, 
was now earnestly engaged in getting the ship under way. 
The sounds of “ We're away” were repeated by a burst from 
fifty voices, and the rapid evolutions of the capstan an- 
nounced that nothing but the weight of the anchor was to be 
lifted. 

For a few minutes the officers were not disappointed by 
the result, for the light duck on the loftier spars swelled out- 
wardly, and the ship began sensibly to yield to their influence. 

“ She travels ! she travels ! ' ; exclaimed Griffith, joyously. 
“ Ah, the hussy ! she has as much antipathy to the land as any 
fish that swims. It blows a little gale aloft yet.” 

We feel its dying breath,” said the pilot, in low, soothing 
tones, but in a manner so sudden as to startle Griffith, at 
whose elbow they were unexpectedly uttered. “ Let us for- 
get, young man, everything but the number of lives that 
depend this night on your exertions and my knowledge.” 

“ If you be half as able to exhibit the one, as I am willing 
to make the other, we shall do well,” returned the lieutenant, 
in the same tone. “ Remember, whatever may be your feel- 
ings, that we are on the enemies' coast, and love it not enough 
to wish to lay our bones there.” 

With this brief explanation they separated, the vessel re- 


THE GALE AND THE RESCUE. 


23 


quiring the constant and close attention of the officer to her 
movements. 

The exultation produced in the crew by the progress of their 
ship through the water was of short duration. 

The heavy rolling of the vessel caused an occasional expan- 
sion, and as sudden a reaction, in their sails, which left the 
oldest seaman in the ship in doubt which way the currents of 
air were passing, or whether there existed any that were not 
created by the flapping of their own canvas. The head of 
the ship, however, began to fall off from the sea, and, not- 
withstanding the darkness, it soon became apparent that she 
was driving in, bodily, toward the shore. 

“ Lose not a moment, Mr. Griffith,” cried the pilot, aloud ; 
“ clew up and furl everything but your three topsails, and let 
them be double-reefed. Now is the time to fulfil your 
promise.” 

The young man paused one moment, in astonishment, as the 
clear, distinct tones of the stranger struck his ears so unex- 
pectedly ; but, turning his eyes to seaward, he sprang on the 
deck, and proceeded to obey the order as if life and death 
depended on his despatch. 

The pilot alone in that busy throng, where voice rose above 
voice, and cry echoed cry, in quick succession, appeared as if 
he held no interest in the important stake. With his eyes 
steadily fixed on the approaching mist, and his arms folded 
together in composure, he stood calmly awaiting the result. 

“The schooner has it,” cried Griffith; “Barnstable has 
held on, like himself, to the last moment. God send that 
the squall leave him cloth enough to keep him from the 
shore ! ” 

“His sails are easily handled,” the commander observed, 
“ and she must be over the principal danger. We are falling 
off before it, Mr. Gray ; shall we try a cast of the lead ? ” 

The pilot turned and moved slowly across the deck before 
he returned any reply to this question — like a man who not 


24 


THE PILOT. 


only felt that everything depended on himself, but that he was 
equal to the emergency . 1 

“ *Tis unnecessary,” he at length answered ; “ Twould be 
certain destruction to be taken aback ; and it is difficult to say, 
within several points, how the wind may strike us.” 

“ ”Tis difficult no longer,” cried Griffith; “for here it 
comes, and in right earnest.” 

The rushing sounds of the wind were now, indeed, heard at 
hand ; and the words were hardly passed the lips of the young 
lieutenant, before the vessel bowed down heavily to one side, 
and then, as she began to move through the water, rose again 
majestically to her upright position, as if saluting, like a 
courteous champion, the powerful antagonist with which she 
was about to contend. Not another minute elapsed before 
the ship was throwing the waters aside with a lively progress, 
and, obedient to her helm, was brought as near to the desired 
course as the direction of the wind would allow. The hurry 
and bustle on the yards gradually subsided, and the men slowly 
descended to the deck, all straining their eyes to pierce the 
gloom in which they were enveloped. All on board anxiously 
waited for the fury of the gale ; for there were none so igno- 
rant or inexperienced in that gallant frigate, as not to know 
that as yet they only felt the infant effects of the wind. 
Each moment, however, it increased in power, though so 
gradual was the alteration, that the relieved mariners began to 
believe that all their gloomy forebodings were not to be real- 
ized. During this short interval of uncertainty, no other 
sounds were heard than the whistling of the wind as it passed 
quickly through the mass of rigging that belonged to the 
vessel, and the dashing of the spray that began to fly from her 
bows like the foam of a cataract. 

“ It blows fresh,” cried Griffith, who was the first to speak 
in that moment of doubt and anxiety ; “ but it's no more than 
a capful of wind, after all. Give us elbow-room and the right 

1 a sudden occasion. 


THE GALE AND THE RESCUE. 


25 


canvas, Mr. Pilot, and Fll handle the ship like a gentleman’s 
yacht, in this breeze.” 

“Will she stay, think ye, under this sail ?” said the low 
voice of the stranger. 

“ She will do all that man, in reason, can ask of wood and 
iron,” returned the lieutenant ; “ but the vessel don’t float the 
ocean that will tack under double-reefed topsails alone, against 
a heavy sea. Help her with her courses, pilot, and you shall 
see her come round like a dancing-master.” 

“ Let us feel the strength of the gale first,” returned the 
man who was called Mr. Gray, with an air of singular coolness 
and abstraction. 

It was evident to every one that the ship was dashing at a 
prodigious rate through the waves ; and as she was approach- 
ing with such velocity the quarter of the bay where shoals 
and dangers were known to be situated, nothing but the habits 
of the most exact discipline could suppress the uneasiness of 
the officers and men within their own bosoms. At length the 
voice of Captain Munson was heard calling to the pilot. 

“ Shall I send a hand into the chains, Mr. Gray,” he said, 
“ and try our water ? ” 

Although the question was asked aloud, and the interest it 
excited drew many of the officers and men around him in eager 
impatience for his answer, it was unheeded by the man to 
whom it was addressed. 

“ Captain Munson desires to know whether you wish a cast 
of the lead ? ” said Griffith, with a little impatience of manner. 
No immediate answer was made to this repetition of the ques- 
tion, and Griffith laid his hand unceremoniously on the shoul- 
der of the other, with an intent to rouse him before he made 
another application for a reply ; hut the convulsive start of the 
pilot held him silent in amazement. 

“Fall back there,” said the lieutenant to his men, who were 
closing around them in a compact circle ; “ away with you to 
your stations, and see all clear for stays ! ” The dense mass of 


26 


THE PILOT. 


heads dissolved, at this order, like the water of one of the 
waves commingling with the ocean, and the lieutenant and his 
companion were left to themselves. 

“ This is not a time for musing, Mr. Gray,” continued 
Griffith ; “ remember our compact, and look to your charge. 
Is it not time to put the vessel in stays ? Of what are you 
dreaming ? ” 

The pilot laid his hand on the extended arm of the lieuten- 
ant, and grasped it with a convulsive pressure, as he answered : 

“ 'Tis a dream of reality. You are young, Mr. Griffith, nor 
am I past the noon of life ; but, should you live fifty years 
longer, you can never see and experience what I have encoun- 
tered in my little period of three-and-thirty years.” 

A good deal astonished at this burst of feeling, so singular 
at such a moment, the young sailor was at loss for a reply ; 
but, as his duty was uppermost in his thoughts, he still dwelt 
on the theme that most interested him. 

“ I hope much of your experience has been on this coast, for 
the ship travels lively,” he said, “ and the daylight showed us 
so much to dread, that we do not feel over-valiant in the dark. 
How much longer shall we stand on, upon this tack ?” 

The pilot turned slowly from the side of the vessel, and 
walked toward the commander of the frigate, as he replied, 
in a tone that seemed deeply agitated by his melancholy reflec- 
tions : 

“ You have your wish, then ; much, very much, of my early 
life was passed on this dreaded coast. What to you is all dark- 
ness and gloom, to me is as light as if a noonday sun shone 
upon it. But tack your ship, sir, tack your ship ; I would see 
how she works before we reach the point where she must 
behave well, or we perish.” 

Griffith gave the cheering order that called each man to his 
station to perform the desired evolution. 1 The helm was no 
sooner put a-lee, than the huge ship bore up gallantly against 

1 change and interchange of position. 


THE GALE AND THE RESCUE. 


27 


the wind, and, dashing directly through the waves, threw the 
foam high into the air, as she looked boldly into the eye of the 
wind ; and then, yielding gracefully to its power, she fell off 
on the other tack, with her head pointed from those danger- 
ous shoals that she had so recently approached with such ter- 
rifying velocity. The heavy yards swung round as if they 
had been vanes to indicate the currents of the air ; and in a 
few moments the frigate agaiti moved with stately progress 
through the water, leaving the rocks and shoals behind her on 
one side of the bay, but advancing toward those that offered 
equal danger on the other. 

During this time the sea was becoming more agitated, and 
the violence of the wind was gradually increasing. Still the 
hardy and experienced mariners who directed her movements 
held her to the course that was necessary to their preservation, 
and still Griffith gave forth, when directed by their unknown 
pilot, those orders that turned her in the narrow channel 
where alone safety was to be found. 

“ Now is the time to watch her closely, Mr. Griffith,” cried 
the pilot; “here we get the true tide and the real danger. 
Place the best quartermaster of your ship in those chains, and let 
an officer stand by him and see that he gives us the right water.” 

“ I will take that office on myself,” said the captain ; “ pass 
a light into the weather mainchains.” 

“ Stand by your braces ! ” exclaimed the pilot, with start- 
ling quickness. “ Heave away that lead ! ” 

While deep expectation pervaded the frigate, the piercing 
cry of the leadsman as he called, “ By the mark seven ,” 1 rose 
above the tempest, crossed over the decks, and appeared to 
pass away to leeward, borne on the blast like the warnings of 
some water-spirit. 

“ 'Tis well,” returned the pilot, calmly ; “ try it again.” 

The short pause was succeeded by another cry, “And a 
half five.” 


i seven fathoms (forty-two feet). 


28 


THE PILOT. 


“ She shoals ! she shoals ! " exclaimed Griffith ; “ keep her 
a good full." 

“Ay, yon must hold the vessel in command now," said the 
pilot, with those cool tones that are most appalling in critical 
moments, because they seem to denote most preparation and 
care. 

The third call, “By the deep four," was followed by a 
prompt direction from the stranger to tack. 

Griffith seemed to emulate the coolness of the pilot in issu- 
ing the necessary orders to execute this manoeuvre . 1 

The vessel rose slowly from the inclined position into which 
she had been forced by the tempest, and the sails were shaking 
violently, as if to release themselves from their confinement, 
while the ship stemmed the billows, when the well-known 
voice of the sailing master was heard shouting from the 
forecastle : 

“ Breakers ! breakers, dead ahead ! " 

This appalling sound seemed yet to be lingering about the 
ship, when a second voice cried : 

“ Breakers- on our lee bow ! " 

“ We are in the bite of the shoals, Mr. Gray," cried the 
commander. “ She loses her way ; perhaps an anchor might 
hold her." 

“ Clear away the best bower," shouted Griffith through his 
trumpet. 

“Hold on," cried the pilot, in a voice that reached the 
very heart of all who heard him ; “ hold on everything." 

The young man turned fiercely to the daring stranger who 
thus defied the discipline of his vessel, and at once demanded : 

“ Who is it that dares to countermand my orders ? Is it 
not enough that you run the ship into danger, but you must 
interfere to keep her there ? If another word " 

“ Peace, Mr. Griffith," interrupted the captain, bending 
from the rigging, his gray locks blowing about in the wind, 

1 change of position. 


THE GALE AND THE RESCUE. 


29 


and adding a look of wildness to the haggard care that he 
exhibited by the light of his lantern ; “ yield the trumpet to 
Mr. Gray ; he alone can save us.” 

Griffith threw his speaking-trumpet on the deck, and, as he 
walked proudly away, muttered in bitterness of feeling : 

“ Then all is lost, indeed ; and among the rest the foolish 
hopes with which I visited this coast.” 

There was, however, no time for reply ; the ship had been 
rapidly running into the wind, and as the efforts of the crew 
were paralyzed by the contradictory orders they had heard, 
she gradually lost her way, and in a few seconds all her sails 
were taken aback. 

Before the crew understood their situation the pilofr had 
applied the trumpet to his mouth, and, in a voice that rose 
above the tempest, he thundered forth his orders. Each com- 
mand was given distinctly, and with a precision that showed 
him to be master of his profession. The helm was kept fast, 
and the head-yards swung up heavily against the wind, and 
the vessel was soon whirling round on her heel, with a retro- 
grade 1 movement. 

Griffith was too much of a seaman not to perceive that the 
pilot had seized, with a perception almost intuitive , 2 the only 
method that promised to extricate the vessel from her situation. 

He was young, impetuous, and proud — but he was gener- 
ous. Forgetting his resentment and his mortification, he 
rushed forward among the men, and by his presence and ex- 
ample added certainty to the experiment. The ship fell off 
slowly before the gale, and bowed her yards nearly to the 
water, as she felt the blast pouring its fury on her broadside, 
while the surly waves beat violently against her stern, as if in 
reproach at departing from her usual manner of moving. 

When the ship had fallen off dead before the wind, her 
headsails were shaken, her afteryards trimmed, and her helm 
shifted before she had time to run upon the danger that had 

i backward, a reached without reasoning. 


30 


THE PILOT. 


threatened, as well to leeward as to windward. The beautiful 
fabric, obedient to her government, threw her bows up grace- 
fully toward the wind again, and, as her sails were trimmed, 
moved out from among the dangerous shoals on which she 
had been embayed, as steadily and swiftly as she had ap- 
proached them. 

A moment of breathless astonishment succeeded the accom- 
plishment of this nice manoeuvre, but there was no time for 
the usual expressions of surprise. The stranger still held the 
trumpet, and continued to lift his voice amid the howlings of 
the blast, whenever prudence or skill required any change in 
the management of the ship. For an hour longer there was 
a fearful struggle for their preservation, the channel becoming 
at each step more complicated, and the shoals thickening 
around the mariners on every side. The lead was cast rapidly, 
and the quick eye of the pilot seemed to pierce the darkness 
with a keenness of vision that exceeded human power. It 
was apparent to all in the vessel that they were under the 
guidance of one who understood navigation thoroughly, and 
their exertions kept pace with their reviving confidence. 
Again and again the frigate appeared to be rushing blindly 
on the shoals where the sea was covered with foam, and where 
destruction would have been as sudden as it was certain, when 
the clear voice of the stranger was heard warning them of the 
danger, and inciting them to their duty. 

“ Now is the pinch,” said the pilot, “ and if the ship behaves 
well, we are safe ; but if otherwise, all we have done will be 
useless.” 

The veteran seaman whom he addressed left the chains at 
this portentous 1 notice, and, calling to his first lieutenant, 
required of the stranger an explanation of his warning. 

“See you yon light on the southern headland ?” returned 
the pilot ; “you may know it from a star near it, by its sink- 
ing at times in the ocean. Now observe the hummock , 2 a 

1 foreshadowing ill. a hillock. 


THE GALE AND THE RESCUE. 


31 


little north of it, looking like a sea-fog in the horizon ; ’tis 
a hill far inland. If we keep that light open from the hill, 
we shall do well ; but if not, we shall surely go to pieces. 

“ Gentlemen, we must be prompt,” earnestly exclaimed the 
pilot ; “ we have but a mile to go, and the ship appears to fly. 
That topsail is not enough to keep her up to the wind ; we 
want both jib and mainsail.” 

“”Tis a perilous thing to loosen canvas in such a tempest,” 
observed the doubtful captain. 

“ It must be done,” returned the collected stranger ; “ we 
perish without it. See, the light already touches the edge of 
the hummock. The sea casts to leeward.” 

“ It shall be done,” cried Griffith, seizing the trumpet from 
the hand of the pilot. 

The orders of the lieutenant were executed almost as soon 
as fssued ; and, everything being ready, the enormous folds of 
the mainsail were trusted to the blast. 

“ She feels it ! she springs her luff ! Observe,” cried the 
pilot, “ the light opens from the hummock already. If she 
will only bear her canvas, we shall go clear.” 

A report like that of a cannon interrupted his exclama- 
tion, and something resembling a white cloud was seen drift- 
ing before the wind from the head of the ship, till it was 
driven into the gloom far to leeward. 

“*Tis the jib, blown from the bolt-ropes,” said the com- 
mander of the frigate. “ This is no time to spread light 
duck, but the mainsail may stand it yet.” 

“The sail would laugh at a tornado,” returned the lieu- 
tenant ; “but the mast springs like a piece of steel.” 

“Silence, all!” cried the pilot. “Now, gentlemen, we 
shall soon know our fate. Let her lufl— luff you can ! ” 

This warning effectually closed all discourse ; and the hardy 
mariners, knowing that they had done all in the power of 
man to insure their safety, stood in breathless anxiety await- 
ing the result. The pilot silently proceeded to the wheel, 


32 


THE PILOT. 


and with his own hands he undertook the steerage of the 
ship. Occasionally the fluttering of the sails would be 
heard ; and when the looks of the startled seamen were 
turned to the wheel, they beheld the stranger grasping the 
spokes, with his quick eye glancing from the water to the 
canvas. At length the ship reached a point where she ap- 
peared to be rushing directly into the jaws of destruction, 
when suddenly her course was changed, and her head receded 
rapidly from the wind. At the same instant the voice of the 
pilot was heard shouting : 

“Square away the yards ! — in mainsail !” 

A general burst from the crew echoed, “ Square away the 
yards ! ” and, quick as thought, the frigate was seen gliding 
along the channel before the wind. The eye had hardly time 
to dwell on the foam, which seemed like clouds driving in the 
heavens, and directly the gallant vessel issued from her perils, 
and rose and fell on the heavy waves of the sea. 

The seamen were yet drawing long breaths, and gazing 
about them like men recovering from a trance, when Griffith 
approached the man who had so successfully conducted them 
through their perils. The lieutenant grasped the hand of the 
other, as he said : 

“ You have this night proved yourself a faithful pilot, and 
such a seaman as the world cannot equal.” 

The pressure of the hand was warmly returned by the un- 
known mariner, who replied : 

“ I am no stranger to the seas, and I may yet find my grave 
in them. But you, too, have deceived me ; you have acted 
nobly, young man.” Saying this, he walked away toward the 
commander. 

Griffith gazed after him a moment in surprise ; but, as his 
duty required his attention, other thoughts soon engaged his 
mind. Not long after he sought the refreshment of his own*' 
cot. 


KATHERINE PLOWDEN’s LETTER. 


33 


CHAPTER IV. 

KATHERINE PLOWDEN^S LETTER. 

* 

The slumbers of Griffith continued till late on the follow- 
ing morning, when he was awakened by the report of a 
cannon issuing from the deck above him. He proceeded 
through the dark ward-room, up the narrow stairs that led 
him to the principal battery of the ship, and thence by 
another and broader flight of steps to the open deck. He cast 
his eyes upwards to examine the disposition of the things aloft, 
and then turned his attention to those who were on the deck 
of the frigate. 

His commander stood patiently waiting the execution of his 
order by the Ariel, and at his side was placed the stranger 
who had so recently acted such a conspicuous part in the 
management of the ship. Griffith availed himself of day- 
light and his situation to examine the appearance of this 
singular being more closely than the darkness and confusion 
of the preceding night had allowed. He was a trifle below 
the middle size in stature, but his form was muscular and 
athletic, exhibiting the finest proportions of manly beauty. 
His face appeared rather characterized by melancholy and 
thought, than by that determined decision which he had so 
powerfully displayed in the moments of their most extreme 
danger ; but Griffith well knew that it could also exhibit looks 
of the fiercest impatience. At present, it appeared to the 
curious youth, when compared to the glimpses he had caught 
by the lights of their lanterns, like the ocean at rest, con- 
trasted with the waters around him. The eyes of the pilot 
rested on the deck, or, when they did wander, it was with 
uneasy and rapid glances. The large pea-jacket that concealed 
most of his other attire was as roughly made, and of materials 
as coarse, as that worn by the meanest seaman in the vessel ; 

3 


34 


THE PILOT. 


and yet it did not escape the inquisitive gaze of the young 
lieutenant, that it was worn with an air of neatness and care 
that was altogether unusual to men of his profession. The 
examination of Griffith ended here, for the near approach of 
the Ariel attracted the attention of all on the deck of the 
frigate to the conversation that was about to pass between 
their respective commanders. 

When Barnstable had entered his boat, a few strokes of the 
oars sent it dancing over the waves to the side of the ship. 
The usual ceremonials of reception were rigidly observed by 
Griffith and his juniors when Barnstable touched the deck. 

The conversation between Barnstable and his superior soon 
ended ; when the former, beckoning to Griffith, passed the 
wondering group who had collected around the capstan 
awaiting his leisure to greet him more cordially, and led the 
way to the ward-room with the freedom of one who felt him- 
self no stranger. As this unsocial manner formed no part of 
the natural temper or ordinary deportment of the man, the 
remainder of the officers suffered their first lieutenant to fol- 
low him alone, believing that duty required that their inter- 
view should be private. Barnstable was determined that it 
should be so, at all events ; for he seized the lamp from the 
mess- table, and entering the state-room of his friend, closed 
the door behind them and turned the key. When they were 
both within its narrow limits, pointing to the only chair the 
little apartment contained, the commander of the schooner 
threw himself carelessly on a sea chest ; and, placing the lamp 
on the table, he opened the discourse as follows : 

“ What a night we had of it ! Twenty times I thought I 
could see the sea breaking over you ; and I had given you 
over as drowned men, or, what is worse, as men driven ashore, 
to be led to the prison-ships of these islanders, when I saw your 
lights. But, Griffith, I have a tale of a different kind— of 
Katherine ” 

Griffith started from his chair involuntarily at the sound of 


KATHERINE PLOWDEN's LETTER. 


35 


this name. Struggling to overcome an emotion which he ap- 
peared ashamed to betray even to the friend he most loved, the 
young man soon recovered himself so far as to resume his seat, 
when he asked gloomily : 

“ Was she alone ? ” 

“ She was ; but she left with me this paper, and this inval- 
uable book, which is worth a library of all other works.” 

The eye of Griffith rested vacantly on the treasure that the 
other valued so highly, but his hand seized eagerly the open let- 
ter which was laid on the table for his perusal. The reader will 
at once understand that it was in the handwriting of a female, 
and that it was the communication Barnstable had received 
from his betrothed on the cliffs. Its contents were as follows : 

“ I have prepared a short statement of the situation of 
Cecilia Howard and myself. 

“ By this time you must understand the character of Colo- 
nel Howard too well to expect he will ever consent to give his 
niece to a rebel. He has already sacrificed to his loyalty, as 
he calls it (but I whisper to Cecilia, Tis treason), not only his 
native country, but no small part of his fortune also. In the 
frankness of my disposition I confessed to him, after the de- 
feat of the mad attempt Griffith made to carry off Cecilia, in 
Carolina, that I had been foolish enough to enter into some 
weak promise to a brother officer who had accompanied the 
young sailor in his traitorous visits to the plantation. The 
colonel received the intelligence as such a guardian would hear 
that his ward was about to throw away thirty thousand dollars 
and herself on a traitor to his king and country. He called 
you a rebel ; that I was used to. He said you were a traitor ; 
that, in his vocabulary, amounts to the same thing. In short, 
he acted Colonel Howard in a rage. One short year will re- 
lease me from his power, and leave me mistress of my own 
actions ; that is, if your fine promises are to be believed. I 
bore it all very well, being resolved to suffer anything but 


36 


THE PILOT. 


martyrdom, rather than abandon Cecilia. She is not the ward 
of Colonel Howard, but his niece and his sole heir. He ap- 
pears to think this gives him a right to tyrannize over her on 
all occasions. 

“ It seems that when the Howards lived on this island a 
hundred years ago, they dwelt in the county of Northumber- 
land. 1 Hither, then, he brought us when political events, and 
his dread of becoming the uncle of a rebel, induced him to 
abandon America, as he says, forever. We have been here 
now three months. Latterly the papers have announced the 
arrival of the ship and your schooner in France ; and from 
that moment as strict a watch has been kept over us as if we 
had meditated a renewal of the Carolina flight. The colonel, 
on his arrival here, hired an old building, that is part house, 
part abbey, part castle, and all prison. 

“ In this delightful dwelling there are many cages, that will 
secure more uneasy birds than we are. About a fortnight ago 
an alarm was given in a neigliboripg village which is situated 
on the shore, that two American vessels, answering your de- 
scription, had been seen hovering along the coast ; and, as the 
people in this quarter dream of nothing but that terrible fellow 
Paul Jones, it was said that he was on board one of them. 
But I believe that Colonel Howard suspects who you really are. 
He was very minute in his inquiries, I hear, and since then has 
established a sort of garrison in the house. 

“ I will describe both our prison and the garrison. The whole 
building is of stone, and not to be attempted with slight means. 
It has windings and turnings, both internally and externally, 
that would require more skill than I possess to make intelligi- 
ble ; but the rooms we inhabit are in the upper or third floor 
of a wing, that you may call a tower if you are in a romantic 
mood, but which, in truth, is nothing but a wing. You will 
know our rooms by the three smoky vanes that whiffle about 

1 a maritime county north of Humber River, northeast coast of England ; chief city, 
Newcastle. 


KATHERINE PLOWDEN’S LETTER. 


37 


the pointed roof, and also by the windows in that story being 
occasionally open. Opposite to our windows, at the distance 
of half a mile, is a retired, unfrequented ruin, concealed in a 
great measure from observation by a wood and affording none 
of the best accommodations, it is true, but shelter in some of 
its vaults or apartments. I have prepared, according to the 
explanations you once gave me on this subject, a set of small 
signals, of differently colored silks, and a little dictionary of 
all the phrases that I could imagine as useful to refer to, prop- 
erly numbered to correspond with the key and the flags, all of 
v which I shall send you with this letter. You must prepare your 
own flags, and of course I retain mine, as well as a copy of the 
key and book. If opportunity should ever offer, we can have, 
at least, a pleasant discourse together ; you from the top of the 
old tower in the ruins, and I from the east window of my 
dressing-room ! But now for the garrison. In addition to the 
commandant, Colonel Howard, who retains all the fierceness 
of his former military profession, there is, as second in author- 
ity, that bane of Cecilia's happiness. Kit Dillon, with his long 
Savannah face, scornful eyes of black, and skin of the same 
color. This gentleman, you know, is a distant relative of the 
Howards, and wishes to be more nearly allied. He is poor, it is 
true ; but then, as the colonel daily remarks, he is a good and 
loyal subject and no rebel. The colonel has long desired to 
see this gentleman the husband of Cecilia, and since the news 
of your being on the coast, the siege has nearly amounted to 
a storm. The consequences are that my cousin at first kept 
her room, and then the colonel kept her there, and even now 
she is precluded from leaving the wing we inhabit. In addi- 
tion to these two principal jailers, we have four men-servants, 
two black and two white ; and an officer and twenty soldiers 
from the neighboring town are billeted 1 on us, by particular 
desire, until the coast is declared free from pirates. Do not 
let my ill-humor urge you to anything rash ; remember your 

1 assigned for lodging. 


38 


THk PILOT. 


life, remember our prison, remember your reputation, but do 
not forget your 

“ Katherine Plowdeh. 

“ P. S. I had almost forgotten to tell you, that in the sig- 
nal book you will find a more particular description of our 
prison, where it stands, and a drawing of the grounds, etc.” 

When Griffith concluded this epistle, he returned it to the 
man to whom it was addressed, and fell back in his chair, in 
an attitude that denoted deep reflection. 

“ I knew she was there, or I should have accepted the com- 
mand offered to me by our commissioners in Paris,” he at 
length uttered ; “ and I thought that some lucky chance 
might throw her in my way ; but this is bringing her 
close indeed. This intelligence must be acted on, and that 
promptly. Poor girl, what does she not suffer in such a 
situation ! ” 

After a short time spent in cool reflection, Griffith inquired 
of his fyiend the nature and circumstances of his interview 
with Katherine Plowden. Barnstable related it, briefly, as it 
occurred, in the manner already known to the reader. 

“ Then,” said Griffith, Merry is the only one besides our- 
selves who knows of this meeting, and he will be too chary of 
the reputation of his kinswoman to mention it.” 

“ We must get them both off,” returned Barnstable, “ and 
that, too, before the old man takes it into his wise head to 
leave the coast. Did you ever get a sight of his instructions, or 
does he keep silent ? ” 

“ As the grave. This is the first time we have left port 
that he has not conversed freely with me on the nature of 
the cruise ; but not a syllable has been exchanged between 
us on the subject since we sailed from Brest . 1 There is a mys- 
tery about the pilot, and our connection with him, that I can- 
not fathom,” said Griffith. “ But I hear the voice of Manual 


1 principal naval seaport of France, northwestern part. 


THE PILOT MADE KNOWN TO GRIFFITH. 


calling for me ; we are wanted in the cabin. Remember, you 
do not leave the ship without seeing me again." 

“ No, no, my dear fellow ; from the public we must retire 
to another private consultation." 

The young men arose and proceeded together along the 
passage already described, to the gun-deck, where they entered, 
with the proper ceremonials, into the principal cabin of the 
frigate. 


CHAPTER V. 

THE PILOT MADE KNOWN TO GRIFFITH. 

The arrangements for the consultation were brief and sim- 
ple. In taking their stations, however, a quiet but rigid ob- 
servance was paid to the rights of seniority and rank. On the 
right of the captain was placed Griffith, as next in authority ; 
and opposite to him was seated the commander of the schooner. 
The officer of marines, who was included in the number, held 
the next situation in point of precedence ; the same order 
being observed at the bottom of the table, which was occupied 
by a hard-featured, square-built, athletic man, who held the 
office of sailing-master. 

When order was restored, after the short interruption of 
taking their places, the officer who had required the advice of 
his inferiors, opened the business on which he demanded their 
opinions. 

“ My instructions direct me, gentlemen," he said, “ after 
making the coast of England, to run the land down " 

The hand of Griffith was elevated respectfully for silence, 
and the veteran paused with a look that inquired the reason of 
his interruption. 

“ We are not alone," said the lieutenant, glancing his eye 
toward the part of the cabin where the pilot stood, leaning on 
one of the guns, in an attitude of easy indulgence. 


40 


THE PILOT. 


The captain dropped his voice to tones of cautious respect, 
as he replied : 

“ 'Tis only Mr. Gray. His services will be necessary on the 
occasion, and therefore nothing need he concealed from him/' 

Glances of surprise were exchanged among the young men ; 
but Griffith bowing in silent acquiescence 1 in the decision of 
his superior, the latter proceeded : 

“ I was ordered to watch for certain signals from the head- 
land that we made, and was furnished with the best of charts, 
and such directions as enabled us to stand into the bay w r e en- 
tered last night. We have obtained a pilot, and one who has 
proved himself a skilful man ; such a one, gentlemen, as no 
officer need hesitate to rely on in any emergency, either on ac- 
count of his integrity or his knowledge." 

The veteran paused, and turned his looks on the counte- 
nances of his listeners, as if to collect their sentiments on this 
important point. Receiving no other reply than the one con- 
veyed by the silent inclinations of the heads of his hearers, ; the 
commander resumed his explanations, referring to an open 
paper in his hand. 

“ It is known to you all, gentlemen, that the unfortunate 
question of retaliation 2 has been much agitated between the 
two governments, our own and that of the enemy. For this 
reason, and for certain political purposes, it has become an 
object of solicitude 3 with our commissioners in Paris to obtain a 
few individuals of character from the enemy, who may be held 
as a check on their proceedings, while at the same time it 
brings the evils of war, from our own shores, home to those 
who caused it. An opportunity now offers to put this plan in 
execution, and I have collected you in order to consult on the 
means." 

After receiving the opinion of each of the officers in turn, 
beginning with Mr. Bol trope, the sailing-master, the captain, 
turning to Mr. Griffith, said : 

1 a silent assent. a act of returning like for like. 3 anxiety. 


THE PILOT MADE KNOWN TO GRIFFITH. 


41 


“Mr. Griffith, we only wait your sentiments, when, by com- 
paring opinions, we may decide on the most prudent course." 

The first lieutenant had been absorbed in thought during 
the discussion of the subject, and might have been on that 
account better prepared to give his opinion with effect. Point- 
ing to the man who yet stood behind him, leaning on a gun, 
he commenced by asking : 

“Is it your intention that that man shall accompany the 
party ? " 

“ It is." 

“And from him you expect the necessary information, sir, 
to guide your movements ? " 

“ You are altogether right." 

“ If, sir, he has but a moiety 1 of the skill on the land that 
he possesses on the water, I will answer for his success," 
returned the lieutenant, bowing slightly to the stranger, who 
received the compliment by a cold inclination of the head. 
“ I must desire the indulgence of both Mr. Barnstable and 
Captain Manual," he continued, “ and claim the command as 
of right belonging to my rank." 

“ It belongs naturally to the schooner," exclaimed the im- 
patient Barnstable. 

“ There may be enough for us all to do," said Griffith. “ I 
neither agree wholly with the one nor the other of these gen- 
tlemen. "Pis said that, since our appearance on the coast, the 
dwellings of many of the gentry are guarded by small detach- 
ments of soldiers from the neighboring towns." 

“ Who says it ? " asked the pilot, advancing among them 
with a suddenness that caused a general silence. 

“ I say it, sir," returned the lieutenant, when the moment- 
ary surprise had passed away. 

“ Can you vouch for it ?" 

“ I can." 

“ Name a house, or an individual, that is thus protected." 


one of two equal parts. 


42 


THE PILOT. 


Griffith gazed at the man who thus forgot himself in the 
midst of a consultation like the present, and, yielding to his 
native pride, hesitated to reply. But mindful of the declara- 
tion of his captain, and the recent services of the pilot, he at 
length said : 

“ I know it to be the fact in the dwelling of a Colonel 
Howard who resides but a few leagues to the north of us." 

The stranger started at the name, and then, raising his eye 
keenly to the face of the young man, appeared to study his 
thoughts in his varying countenance. His lip slightly curled, 
and, as he dropped quietly back to his place at the gun, he 
said : 

“ 'Tis more than probable you are right, sir ; and, if I might 
presume to advise Captain Munson, it would be to lay great 
weight on your opinion." 

Griffith turned to see if he could comprehend more mean- 
ing in the manner of the stranger than his words expressed ; 
but his face was again shaded by his hand, and his eyes were 
once more fixed on the chart with the same vacant abstraction 1 
as before. 

“ I have said, sir, that I agree wholly neither with Mr. 
Barnstable nor Captain Manual," continued the lieutenant, 
after a short pause. “ The command of this party is mine, as 
the senior officer, and I must beg leave to claim it. I certainly 
do not think the preparation Captain Manual advises neces- 
sary, neither would I undertake the duty with as little caution 
as Mr. Barnstable proposes. If there are soldiers to be encoun- 
tered, we should have soldiers to oppose them ; but as it must 
be sudden boat work, and regular evolutions must give place 
to a seamam’s bustle, a sea-officer should command. Is my 
request granted. Captain Munson ? " 

The veteran replied without hesitation : 

“ It is, sir ; it was my intention to offer you the service, and 
I rejoice to see you accept it so cheerfully." 


1 absence of mind . 


THE PILOT MADE KNOWN TO GRIFFITH. 


43 


Griffith with difficulty concealed the satisfaction with which 
he listened to his commander, and a radiant smile illumined 
his pale features when he observed : 

“ With me, then, sir, let the responsibility rest. I request 
that Captain Manual, with twenty men, may be put under my 
orders, if that gentleman does not dislike the duty/’ The 
marine bowed, and cast a glance of triumph at Barnstable. “ I 
will take my own cutter with her tried crew, go on board the 
schooner, and, when the wind lulls, we will run in to the land, 
and then be governed by circumstances/’ 

The commander of the schooner threw back the triumphant 
look of the marine, and exclaimed in his joyous manner : 

“ ’Tis a good plan, and done like a seaman, Mr. Griffith. 
Ay, ay, let the schooner be employed ; and if it be necessary 
you shall see her anchored in one of their duck-ponds, with 
her broadside to bear on the parlor windows of the best house 
in the island. But twenty marines ! they will cause a jam in 
my little craft.” 

“Not a man less than twenty would be prudent,” returned 
Griffith. “ More service may offer than that we seek.” 

Barnstable well understood his allusion, but still he re- 
plied : 

“ Make it all seamen, and I will give you room for thirty. 
But these soldiers never know how to stow away their arms 
and legs, unless at a drill. One will take the room of two 
sailors. Why, sir, the chalk and rottenstone of the twenty 
soldiers will choke my hatches ! ” 

“ Give me the launch, Captain Munson,” exclaimed the 
indignant marine, “ and we will follow Mr. Griffith in an open 
boat, rather than put Captain Barnstable to so much incon- 
venience.” 

“No, no, Manual,” cried the other, extending his muscular 
arm across the table, with an open palm, to the soldier ; “ you 
would all become so many Jonahs in uniform.” 

As Griffith was retiring, he felt a hand laid lightly on his 


44 


THE PILOT. 


shoulder, and, turning, perceived that he was detained by ,the 
pilot. 

“ Mr. Griffith,” he said, when they were quite alone with the 
commander of the frigate, “ the occurrences of the last night 
should teach us confidence in each other ; without it we go on 
a dangerous and fruitless errand.” 

“Is the hazard 1 equal?” returned the youth. “I am 
known to all to be the man I seem, am in the service of my 
country, belong to a family and enjoy a name that is a pledge 
for my loyalty to the cause of America, and yet I trust myself 
on hostile ground in the midst of enemies, with a weak arm, 
and under circumstances where treachery would prove my 
ruin. Who and what is the man who thus enjoys your confi- 
dence, Captain Munson ? I ask the question less for myself 
than for the gallant men who will fearlessly follow wherever I 
lead.” 

A shade of dark displeasure crossed the features of the stran- 
ger at one part of this speech, and at its close he sank into 
deep thought. The commander, however, replied : 

“There is a show of reason in your question, Mr. Griffith, 
and yet you are not the man to be told that implicit obedience 
is what I have the right to expect. I have not your preten- 
sions, sir, by birth or education, and yet Congress have not 
seen proper to overlook my years and services. I command 
the frigate ” 

“ Say no more,” said the pilot. “ There is reason in his 
doubts, and they shall be appeased. I like the proud and fear- 
less eye of the young man, and while he dreads the gibbet from 
my hands, I will show him how to repose a noble confidence. 
Read this, sir, and tell me if you distrust me now.” 

While the stranger spoke he thrust his hand into the bosom 
of his dress and drew forth a parchment, decorated with ribbons 
and bearing a massive seal, which he opened and laid on the 
table before the youth. As he pointed with his finger impres- 


1 risk. 


THE EXPEDITION STARTS. 


45 


sively to different parts of the writing, his eye kindled with a 
look of unusual fire, and there was a faint tinge discernible on 
his pallid features when he spoke. 

“See,” he said, “royalty itself does not hesitate to bear 
witness in my favor, and that is not a name to occasion dread 
to an American.” 

Griffith gazed with wonder at the fair signature of the 
unfortunate Louis , 1 which graced the bottom of the parch- 
ment ; but when his eye obeyed the signal of the stranger, and 
rested on the body of the instrument, he started back from the 
table, and fixing his animated eyes on the pilot, he cried, while 
a glow of fiery courage flitted across his countenance : 

“ Lead on ! Fll follow you to death ! ” 

A smile of gratified exultation struggled around the lips of 
the stranger, who took the arm of the young man and led 
him into a state-room, leaving the commander of the frigate 
standing in his unmoved and quiet manner, a spectator of, 
but hardly an actor in, the scene. 


CHAPTEK VI. 

THE EXPEDITION STARTS. 

Although the subject of the consultation remained a secret 
with those whose opinions were required, yet enough of the 
result leaked out among the subordinate officers to throw the 
whole crew into a state of eager excitement. 

Captain Manual had his men paraded in the weather-gang- 
way, and, after a short address, proceeded to make a most im- 
partial division among the candidates for glory. 

While this arrangement was taking place, and the crew of 
the frigate was in a state of excitement, Griffith ascended to 
the deck, his countenance flushed with a look of animation and 
gayety that had long been stranger to the face of the young 

1 Louis XV., king of France. 


46 


THE PILOT. 


man. He was giving forth the few necessary orders to the 
seamen he was to take with him from the ship, when Barn- 
stable again motioned him to follow, and led the way once 
more to the state-room. 

“ What think you of this expedition to the land ?” 

“ That it means the rescuing the ladies, though it fail in 
making the prisoners we anticipate,” answered Griffith. 

“ But this pilot ! You remember that he holds us by our 
necks, and can run us all up to the yardarm of some English 
ship whenever he chooses to open his throat at their threats 
or bribes.” 

“ It would have been better that he should have cast the 
ship ashore when he had her entangled in the shoals ; it 
would have been our last thought to suspect him of treachery 
-then,” returned Griffith. “ I follow him with confidence, and 
must- believe that we are safer with him than we should be 
without him.” 

Barnstable, after reflecting a moment, started on his feet, 
and made the usual movements for departure. 

“ Whither ?” asked Griffith, gently detaining his impatient 
friend. 

“ To old Moderate ; 1 I have a proposal to make that may 
remove every difficulty.” 

“ Name it to me, then ; I am in his counsel, and may save 
you the trouble and mortification 2 of a refusal.” 

“How many of those gentry does he wish to line his cabin 
with ? ” 

“ The pilot has named no less than six, all men of rank and 
consideration with the enemy. Two of them are peers , 3 two 
more belong to the Commons* House of Parliament, one is a 
general, and the sixth, like ourselves, is a sailor, and holds 
the rank of captain. They muster at a hunting-seat near the 
coast, and, believe me, the scheme is not without plausibility .” 4 


1 a nickname for Captain Munson. 

2 humiliation or vexation. 


3 noblemen of especial dignity. 

4 appearance of being right. 


THE EXPEDITION STARTS. 


47 


“Well, then, there are two apiece for us. You follow the 
pilot, if you will ; but let me sheer off for this dwelling of 
Colonel Howard, with my cockswain and boat's crew. I will 
surprise the house, release the ladies, and, on my way back, 
lay my hands on two of the first lords I fall in with. I sup- 
pose, for our business, one is as good as another." 

Griffith could not repress a faint laugh, while he replied : 

“ Though they are said to be each other's peers, there is, I 
believe, some difference even in the quality of lords. England 
might thank us for ridding her of some among them. No, 
no ; the men we seek must have something better than their 
nobility to recommend them to our favor. But let us exam- 
ine more closely into this plan and map of Miss Plowden's ; 
something may occur that shall yet bring the place within our 
circuit, like a contingent duty of the cruise." 

Barnstable reluctantly relinquished his own wild plan to the 
more sober judgment of his friend, and they passed an hour 
together, inquiring into the practicability, and consulting on 
the means, of making their public duty subserve the purposes 
of their private feelings. 

The last lagger among the soldiers had appeared with his 
knapsack on his back, in the lee gangway where his comrades 
were collected, armed and accoutred 1 for the strife, when Cap- 
tain Munson ascended 1# the quarter-deck, accompanied by 
the stranger and his first lieutenant. A word was spoken by 
the latter in a low voice to a midshipman, who skipped gayly 
along the deck, and presently the shrill call of the boatswain 
was heard, preceding the hoarse cry of — 

“Away there, you tigers, away !" 

A smart roll of the drum followed, and the marines paraded, 
while the six seamen who belonged to the cutter that owned 
so fierce a name made their preparations for lowering their 
little boat from the quarter of the frigate into the troubled sea. 

At length it was announced that the cutter was ready to 

i dressed, equipped. 


48 


THE PILOT. 


receive the officers of the party. The pilot walked aside and 
held private discourse for a few moments with the com- 
mander, who listened to his sentences with marked and singu- 
lar attention. 

“ Come, gentlemen, let us go,” said Griffith, starting from 
a revery , 1 and bowing his hasty compliments to his brethren 
in arms. 

When it appeared that his superiors were ready to enter the 
boat, the boy, who by nautical courtesy was styled Mr. Merry, 
.sprang over the side of the frigate, and glided into the cutter, 
with the activity of a squirrel. But the captain of the marines 
paused, and cast a meaning glance at the pilot, whose place it 
was to precede him. 

The stranger, as he lingered on the deck, was examining 
the aspect of the heavens, and seemed unconscious of the ex- 
pectations of the soldier, who gave vent to his impatience, 
after a moment’s detention, by saying : 

“ We wait for you, Mr. Gray.” 

Aroused by the sound of his name, the pilot glanced his 
quick eye on the speaker, but, instead of advancing, he gently 
bent his body, as he again signed toward the gangway with his 
hand. To the astonishment not only of the soldier, but of all 
who witnessed this breach of naval etiquette , 2 Griffith bowed 
low, and entered the boat with the^ame promptitude as if he 
were preceding an admiral. The stranger immediately fol- 
lowed himself, leaving to the marine the post of honor. The 
latter, who was distinguished for his skill in all naval or mili- 
tary etiquette, thought proper to apologize, at a fitting time, 
to the first lieutenant, for suffering his senior officer to precede 
him into a boat, but never failed to show a becoming exulta- 
tion, when he recounted the circumstance, by dwelling on the 
manner in which he had brought down the pride of the 
haughty pilot. 

Barnstable had been several hours on board his little vessel, 

* an irregular train of thought. a forms required by good breeding. 


A DINING-PARLOR AT ST. RUTH’S ABBEY. 


49 


which was every way prepared for their reception ; and, as 
soon as the heavy cutter of the frigate was hoisted on her 
deck, he announced that the schooner was ready to sail. 

. Griffith intimated to Barnstable, that, as the gale was sensi- 
bly abating, they would pursue the object of their destination. 

The commander of the schooner issued the necessary orders 
to direct their movements. The little schooner slowly obeyed 
the impulse of her helm, and shot away from her consort 
like a meteor dancing across the waves. As the ship disap- 
peared, the land seemed to issue out of the bosom of the 
deep ; and so rapid was their progress, that the dwellings of 
the gentry, the humbler cottages, and even the dim lines of 
the hedges became gradually more distinct to the eyes of the 
hold mariners. 

The little Ariel held on her way, skimming the ocean like 
a water-fowl seeking its place of nightly rest, and shooting in 
toward the land as fearlessly as if the dangers of the preceding 
night were already forgotten. 


CHAPTER VII. 

A DINING-PARLOR AT ST. RUTlPs ABBEY, AND ITS 
OCCUPANTS. 

The large irregular building inhabited by Colonel Howard 
well deserved the name it had received from the pen of Kath- 
erine Plowden. 

Leaving the gloomy shadows of the cliff, under which the 
little Ariel had been seen to steer, we shall endeavor to trans- 
port the reader to the dining-parlor of St. RutlPs Abbey, 
taking the evening of the same day as the time for intro- 
ducing another collection of personages. 

The room was not of very large dimensions, and every part 
was glittering with the collected light of half a dozen candles, 
4 


50 


THE PILOT. 


aided by the fierce rays that glanced from the grate, which 
held a most cheerful fire of sea-coal. The mouldings of the 
dark oak wainscoting threw back upon the massive table of 
mahogany streaks of strong light, which played among the 
rich fluids that were sparkling on the board in mimic halos . 1 
The outline of this picture of comfort was formed by damask 
curtains of a deep red, and enormous chairs with leathern 
backs and cushioned seats, as if the apartment was hermeti- 
cally 2 sealed against the world and its chilling cares. 

Around the table, which stood in the centre of the floor, 
were seated three gentlemen, in the easy enjoyment of their 
daily repast. 

At one end of the table an elderly man was seated, who 
performed whatever little acts of courtesy the duties of a host 
would appear to render necessary in a company where all 
seemed equally at their ease and at home. This gentleman 
was in the decline of life, though his erect carriage, quick 
movements, and steady hand equally denoted that it was an 
old age free from the usual infirmities. In dress he belonged 
to that class whose members always follow the fashions of the 
age anterior 3 to the one in which they live. His countenance 
was strongly marked in features, if not in expression, exhibit- 
ing on the whole a look of noble integrity and high honor, 
which was a good deal aided in its effect by the lofty receding 
forehead, that rose like a monument above the whole, to 
record the character of the aged veteran. 

Opposite to the host, -who it will at once be understood was 
Colonel Howard, was the thin yellow visage of Mr. Christopher 
Dillon, that bane to the happiness of her cousin, already men- 
tioned by Miss Plowden. 

Between these two gentlemen was a middle-aged, hard- 
featured man, attired in the livery of King George. 

A man in the dress of a rustic was standing near the chair 
of Colonel Howard, between whom and the master of the 


4 circles of light. 


2 so as to exclude air. 


prior, before,. 


A DINING-PARLOR AT ST. RUTH’S ABBEY. 


51 


mansion a dialogue had been maintained, which closed as 
follows. The colonel was the first to speak : 

“ Said you, farmer, that the Scotchman beheld the vessel 
with his own eyes ?" 

The answer was a simple negation. 

“ Well, well," continued the colonel, “you can withdraw." 

The man made a rude attempt at a bow, which being re- 
turned by the old soldier with formal grace, he left the room. 
The host, turning to his companions, said : “ If those rash 
boys have persuaded the silly dotard 1 who commands the frig- 
ate to trust himself within the shoals on the eve of such a gale 
as this, their case must have been hopeless indeed ! " 

“ It is by no means certain, sir, that the ship and schooner 
that the drover saw are the vessels you take them to have 
been," said Mr. Dillon, in a harsh, drawling tone of voice. 
“ I should doubt their daring to venture so openly on the 
coast, and in the direct track of our vessels-of-war." 

“ These people are our countrymen, Christopher, though 
they are rebels," exclaimed the colonel. “ They are a hardy 
and brave nation. When I had the honor to serve his Majesty, 
some twenty years since, it was my fortune to face the enemies 
of my king in a few small affairs. Captain Borroughcliffe ; such 
as the siege of Quebec , 3 and the battle before its gates, a trifling 
occasion at Ticonderoga , 3 and that unfortunate catastrophe of 
General Braddock 4 — with a few others. I must say, sir, in 
favor of the Colonies, that they played a manful game on the 
latter day ; and this gentleman who now heads the rebels sus- 
tained a gallant name among us for his conduct in that disas- 
trous business. He was a discreet, well-behaved young man, 
and quite a gentleman." 

“ Yes," said the soldier, yawning, “he was educated among 
his Majesty's troops, and he could hardly be otherwise. But 

1 one in second childhood. 8 a fortified town, situated on an outlet 

* capital of the province of Quebec, Can- of Lake George to Lake Champlain, N. Y. 
ada ; scene of the closing battle of French 4 leader in proposed attack upon Fort 

and Indian war. Duquesne, 1755. 


52 


THE PILOT. 


here we three sit from morning to night, bachelors all, well- 
provisioned, I grant you, but like so many well-fed ancho- 
rites , 1 while two of the loveliest damsels in the island pine in 
solitude within a hundred feet of us, without tasting the hom- 
age of our sighs. This, I will maintain, is a reproach both 
to your character. Colonel Howard, as an old soldier, and to 
mine as a young one.” 

“You shall be admitted this very night, and this instant. 
Captain Borroughclilfe. We owe it, sir, to your services here, 
as well as in the field, and those froward girls shall be hu- 
mored no longer. Nay, it is nearly two weeks since I have seen 
my ward myself ; nor have I laid my eyes on my niece but 
twice in all that time. You will pardon my early absence 
from the table, captain.” 

“I beg it may not be mentioned,” cried the soldier. 
“ Make my devoirs 2 to the recluses, and say all that your own 
excellent wit shall suggest as an apology for my impatience.” 

Colonel Howard left the apartment, bowing low, and utter- 
ing a thousand excuses to his guest as he proceeded. 

“ Is fear so very powerful within these old walls,” said the 
soldier, when the door closed behind their host, “ that your 
ladies deem it necessary to conceal themselves before even an 
enemy is known to have landed ? ” 

Dillon coldly replied : 

' “The name of Paul Jones is terrific to all on this coast, I 
believe ; nor are the ladies of St. Ruth singular in their appre- 
hensions.” 

“Ah ! the pirate has bought himself a desperate name since 
the affair of Flamborough Head.” 3 

He would have proceeded, but the door opened, and his 
orderly entered and announced that a sentinel had detained 
three men who were passing along the highway, near the 
abbey, and who by their dress appeared to be seamen. 


1 hermits. 

2 (dev-wahr') respects, compliments. 


3 a headland on the eastern coast of Eng- 
land, four hundred and fifty feet high. 


colonel Howard's message to his niece. 53 


“ Well, let them pass,” cried the captain. “ What, have we 
nothing to do better than to stop passengers ! Give them of 
your canteens, and let the rascals pass.” 

“ I beg your honor's pardon,” returned the sergeant ; “ but 
these men seemed lurking about the grounds for no good, and 
as they kept carefully aloof from the place where our sentinel 
was posted until to-night. Downing thought it looked suspi- 
ciously and detained them.” 

“Downing is a fool, and it may go hard with him for his 
officiousness. What have you done with the men ?” 

“I took them to the guard -room in the east wing, your 
honor.” 

“Then feed them, and hark ye, sirrah, liquor them well, 
that we hear no complaints, and let them go.” 

“Yes, sir, yes, your honor shall be obeyed; but there is a 
straight, soldierly-looking fellow among them that I think 
might be persuaded to enlist if he were detained till morning. 
I doubt, sir, by his walk hut he has served already.” 

“Ha! what say you ?” cried the captain, pricking up his 
ears like a hound who heard a well-known cry; “served, 
think ye, already ? Give me your arm, sergeant, and lead 
the way to the east' wing ; my eyesight is good for nothing in 
such a dark night. A soldier should always visit his guard 
before the tattoo 1 beats.” 

CHAPTER VIII. 

colonel Howard's message to his niece, and its 

INTERRUPTION. 

The western wing of St. Ruth house or abbey, as the build- 
ing was indiscriminately 2 called, retained but few vestiges of the 
uses to which it had been originally devoted. The withdraw- 
ing -room was of fair dimensions, and an air of peculiar comfort 

1 beat of drum at night. 2 without distinction. 


54 


THE ‘PILOT. 


mingled with chastened luxury was thrown around it by the 
voluminous folds of the blue damask curtains. A brisk fire of 
wood was burning on the hearth in compliment to the wilful 
prejudice of Miss Plowden, who had maintained in her most 
vivacious 1 manner that sea-coal was “only tolerable for black- 
smiths and Englishmen.” In addition to the cheerful blaze 
from the hearth, two waxen candles in candlesticks of massive 
silver were lending their aid to enliven the apartment. Divers 
small squares of silk, strongly contrasted to each other in 
color, lay on every side of her, and were changed, as she 
kneeled on the floor, by her nimble hands into as many 
different combinations, as if she was humoring the fancies of 
her sex, or consulting the shades of her own dark but rich 
complexion in the shop of a mercer . 2 

Another female figure, clad in virgin white, was reclining 
on the end of a distant couch. The seclusion in which they 
lived might have rendered this female a little careless of her 
appearance, or, what was more probable, the comb had been 
found unequal to its burden, for her tresses had burst from 
their confinement. The fallen lids and long silken lashes 
concealed the eyes that rested on the floor, as if their mistress 
mused in melancholy. There might have been a tinge of 
slight red in her cheeks, but it varied even as she mused in 
quiet, now seeming to steal insidiously 3 over her glowing 
temples, and then leaving on her face an almost startling 
paleness. 

“ Oh, I’m an expert, as if I were a signal officer to the lord 
high admiral of this realm ! ” exclaimed the laughing female on 
the floor, clapping her hands together in girlish exultation. 
“I do so long, dear Cecilia, for an opportunity to exhibit my 
skill.” 

The success of your mad excursion to the seaside, my dear 
Katherine, has bewildered your brain,” returned Cecilia ; “ but 
I know not how to conquer your disease, unless we prescribe 

1 lively. 3 dealer in silks and woollens. 3 wilily. 


colonel Howard’s message to his niece. 


55 


salt water for the remedy, as in some other cases of mad- 
ness.” 

“ Ah, I am afraid your nostrum 1 would be useless ! ” cried 
Katherine ; “it has failed to wash out the disorder from the 
sedate Mr. Richard Barnstable, who has had the regimen 2 ad- 
ministered to him through many a gale, but who continues as 
fair a candidate for Bedlam 3 as ever. Would you think it, 
Cicely, the crazy one urged me, in the ten minutes* conversa- 
tion we held together on the cliffs, to accept of his schooner as 
a shower-bath ! ” 

“ I think that your hardihood might encourage him to ex- 
pect much, but surely he could not have been serious in such 
a proposal ! ” 

“ Oh, to do the wretch justice, he did say something of a 
chaplain to consecrate the measure, but there was boundless 
impudence in the thought ! What a fine time he must have 
had of it in his little Ariel among the monstrous waves we saw 
tumbling in upon the shore to-day, coz ! I do think the man 
cannot have a dry thread about him, from sun to sun. I will 
form half a dozen signals this instant, to joke at his moist con- 
dition, in very revenge.” 

“ Katherine ! Katherine ! can you jest when there is so 
much to apprehend ? Forget you what Alice Dunscombe told 
us of the gale this morning ? And that she spoke of two ves- 
sels, a ship and a schooner, that had been seen venturing with 
fearful temerity , 4 within the shoals, only six miles from the 
abbey ?” 

The thoughtless, laughing girl was recalled to her recol- 
lection by this remonstrance, and every trace of mirth van- 
ished from her countenance, leaving a momentary death-like 
paleness crossing her face, as she clasped her hands before her, 
and fastened her keen eyes vacantly on the splendid pieces of 


i quack medicine. gious house in London, afterward made 

8 course of living. an insane asylum. 

8 (corrupted form of Bethlehem) a reli- 4 rashness. 


56 


THE PILOT. 


silk that now lay unheeded before her. At this critical mo- 
ment the door of the room opened, and Colonel Howard 
entered the apartment with an air that displayed a droll mix- 
ture of strong indignation with a chivalric and habitual re- 
spect to the sex. 

“I solicit your pardon, young ladies, for the interruption,” 
he said ; “ I trust, however, that an old man’s presence can 
never be entirely unexpected in the drawing-room of his 
wards.” 

As he bowed, the colonel seated himself on the end of the 
couch, opposite to the place where his niece had been reclin- 
ing ; for Miss Howard had risen at his entrance, and continued 
standing until her uncle had comfortably disposed of himself. 
Throwing a glance which was not entirely free from self-con- 
demnation around the comfortable apartment, the veteran 
proceeded in the same tone as before : 

“ You are not without the means of making any guest wel- 
come, nor do I see the necessity of such constant seclusion from 
the eyes of the world as you thus rigidly practise.” 

Cecilia looked timidly at her uncle, with surprise, before 
she returned answer to his remark. 

“ We certainly owe much to your kind attention, dear sir,” 
she at length uttered ; “ but is our retirement voluntary ?” 

“ How can it be otherwise ? Are you not mistress of this 
mansion, madam ? Everything appears to my aged eye as if 
we ought not to he ashamed to receive our friends within these 
walls.” 

“ Open, then, the portals of the abbey, sir, and your niece 
will endeavor to do proper credit to the hospitality of its 
master.” 

“ That was spoken like Harry Howard’s daughter, frankly 
and generously,” cried the old soldier, insensibly edging him- 
self nearer to his niece. “ If my brother had devoted himself 
to the camp instead of the sea, Cecilia, he would have made 
one of the bravest and ablest generals in his Majesty’s service. 


colonel Howard’s message to his niece. 


57 


Poor Harry ! He might have been living at this moment, 
leading the victorious troops of his sovereign through the re- 
volted Colonies in triumph. But he is gone, Cicely, and has 
left you behind him as his dear representative, to perpetuate 1 
our family, and to possess what little has been left to us from 
the ravages of the times. ” 

“ Surely, dear sir/'" said Cecilia, taking his hand, which had 
unconsciously approached her person, and pressing it to her 
lips, “ we have no cause to complain of our lot in respect to 
fortune, though it may cause us bitter regret that so few of 
us are left to enjoy it.” 

“ No, no, no,” said Katherine, in a low, hurried voice ; “ Alice 
Dunscombe is and must be wrong ; Providence would never 
abandon brave men to so cruel a fate ! ” 

“ Alice Dunscombe is here to atone for her error, if she has 
fallen into one,” said a quiet, subdued voice. 

The surprise created by these sudden interruptions caused 
a total suspension of the discourse. Katherine Plowden, who 
had continued kneeling, arose, and as she looked about her in 
momentary confusion, the blood again mantled her face with 
the fresh and joyous springs of life. The other speaker ad- 
vanced steadily into the middle of the room ; and after return- 
ing, with studied civility, the low bow of Colonel Howard, 
seated herself in silence on the opposite couch. The manner 
of her entrance, her reception, and her attire sufficiently 
denoted that the presence of this female was neither unusual 
nor unwelcome. She was dressed with marked simplicity, 
though with a studied neatness that more than compensated 
for the absence of ornaments. Her age might not have much 
exceeded thirty, but there was an adoption of customs in her 
attire that indicated she was not unwilling to be thought older. 

Colonel Howard paused a moment, and then, turning to 
Katherine with an air that became stiff and constrained by 
attempting to seem extremely easy, he said : 

1 to preserve from extinction. 


58 


THE PILOT. 


“ You no sooner summon Miss Alice, but she appears, Miss 
Plowden — ready and (I am bold to say, Miss Alice) able to 
defend herself against all charges that her worst enemies can 
allege against her.” 

“I have no charges to make against Miss Dunscombe,” 
said Katherine, pettishly, “ nor do I wish to have dissen- 
sions created between me and my friends, even by Colonel 
Howard.” 

“ Colonel Howard will studiously avoid such offences in 
future,” said the veteran, bowing ; and, turning stiffly to the 
others, he continued : “I was just conversing with my niece 
as you entered, Miss Alice, on the subject of her immuring 1 
herself like one of the veriest nuns who ever inhabited these 
cloisters . 2 Miss Plowden, I feel it to be my duty to inquire 
why those pieces of silk are provided in such unusual abun- 
dance, and in so extraordinary a shape ? ” 

“To make a gala-dress for the ball you are to give, sir,” 
said Katherine, with a saucy smile that was only checked by 
the reproachful glance of her cousin. 

“I was observing, Miss Alice,” continued the colonel, 
“ that although the times had certainly inflicted some loss on 
my estate, yet we were not so much reduced as to be unable 
to receive our friends in a manner that would disgrace the 
descendants of the ancient possessors of St. Ruth. Cecilia, 
here, my brother Harry’s daughter, is a young lady that any 
uncle might be proud to exhibit ; and I would have her, madam,, 
show your English dames that we rear no unworthy specimens 
of the parent stock on the other side of the Atlantic.” 

“ You have only, to declare your pleasure, my good uncle,” 
said Miss Howard, “ and it shall be executed.” 

“ Tell us how we can oblige you, sir,” continued Katherine, 
“and if it be in any manner that will relieve the tedium 3 of 
this dull residence, I promise you at least one cheerful assist- 
ant to your scheme.” 

1 confining. 2 places of seclusion for religious duties. 3 whatever wearies or disgusts one. 


colonel Howard’s message to his niece. 


59 


“You speak fair,” cried the colonel, “and like two discreet 
and worthy girls. Well, our first step shall he to send a mes- 
sage to Dillon and the captain, and invite them to attend your 
cofi'ee. I see the hour approaches.” 

Cecilia made no reply, but looked distressed, and dropped 
her mild eyes to the carpet ; but Miss Plowden took it upon 
herself to answer. 

“Nay, sir, that would be for them to proceed in the mat- 
ter ; as your proposal was that the first step should be ours, 
suppose we all adjourn to your part of the house, and do the 
honors of the tea-table in your drawing-room instead of our 
own ? I understand, sir, that you have an apartment fitted 
up for that purpose in some style ; a woman's taste might aid 
your designs, how r ever.” 

“Miss Plowden, I believe I intimated to you some time 
since,” said the displeased colonel, “ that so long as certain 
suspicious vessels were known to hover on this coast, I should 
desire that you and Miss Howard would confine yourselves to 
this wing.” 

“ All measures adopted from a dread of a ship and schooner 
that ran within the Devil's Crip, yestereve, may be dispensed 
with now,” interrupted Miss Dunscombe, in a melancholy, 
reflecting tone. “ There are few living who know the dan- 
gerous paths that can conduct even the smallest craft in safety 
from the land, with daylight and fair winds ; but w'hen dark- 
ness and adverse gales oppose them, their chance for safety 
lies wholly in Cod's kindness.” 

“There is truly much reason to believe they are lost,” re- 
turned the colonel, in a voice in which no exultation was 
apparent. 

“They are not lost !” exclaimed Katherine, with startling 
energy. “ They are skilled and they are brave, and what gal- 
lant sailors can do will they do, and successfully ; besides, in 
what behalf would a just Providence sooner exercise its merci- 
ful power, than to protect the daring children of an oppressed 


60 


THE PILOT. 


country, while contending against tyranny and countless 
wrongs ? ” 

The conciliating 1 disposition of the colonel deserted him as 
he listened. His own black eyes sparkled with a vividness 
unusual for his years, and his courtesy barely permitted the 
lady to conclude, ere he broke forth : 

“What sin, madam, what crime, would sooner call down 
the just wrath of Heaven on the transgressors, than the act of 
foul rebellion ? ” 

“ I know not that you have the authority for believing it to 
be the heavy enormity 2 that you mention, Colonel Howard,” 
said Miss Dunscombe, anticipating the spirited reply of Kath- 
erine, and willing to avert it. “It is, besides, a dangerous 
temptation, to one little practised in the great world, to find 
himself suddenly elevated to the seat of power ; and if it do 
not lead to the commission of great crimes, it surely prepares 
the way to it, by hardening the heart.” 

“ I hear you patiently, Miss Alice,” said Katherine, dancing 
her little foot, in affected coolness ; “ for you neither know of 
whom or to whom you speak. But Colonel Howard has not 
that apology. Peace, Cecilia ; for I must speak. Believe them 
not, dear girl ; there is not a wet hair on their heads. For you. 
Colonel Howard, who must recollect that the 'sister’s son of the 
mothers of both your niece and myself is on board that frigate, 
there is an appearance of cruelty in using such language.” 

“ I pity the boy, from my soul I pity him,” exclaimed the 
veteran ; “ he is a child, and has followed the current that is 
sweeping our unhappy Colonies down the tide of destruction. 
But there are others in that vessel who have no excuse of 
ignorance to offer. There is a son of my old acquaintance and 
the bosom friend of my brother Harry, Cecilia's father, dash- 
ing Hugh Griffith as we called him. 'Tis such men as these, 
with Washington at their head, who maintain the bold front 
that this rebellion wears.” 


1 winning over. 


3 great crime. 


THE THREE PRISONERS. 


61 


“ There are men who have never worn the servile livery of 
Britain, sir, whose names are as fondly cherished in America 
as any that she boasts of,” said Katherine, proudly ; “ ay, sir, 
and those who would gladly oppose the bravest officers in the 
British fleet.” 

“ I contend not against your misguided reason,” said Colonel 
Howard, rising with cool respect. “ A young lady who ven- 
tures to compare rebels with gallant gentlemen engaged in their 
duty to their prince, cannot escape the imputation of possessing 
a misguided reason. No man — I speak not of women, who 
cannot be supposed so well versed in human nature — but no 
man, who has reached the time of life that entitles him to be 
called by that name, can consort with these disorganizes, who 
would destroy everything that is sacred ; these levellers, who — 
who ” 

“ Nay, sir, you are at a loss for opprobrious 1 epithets,” said 
Katherine, with provoking coolness; “call on Mr. Christopher 
Dillon for assistance ; he waits your pleasure at the door.” 

Colonel Howard turned in amazement, forgetting his angry 
declamations at this unexpected intelligence, and beheld in 
reality the sombre 3 visage of his kinsman, apparently as much 
surprised at finding himself in the presence of the ladies as 
they themselves could be at his unusual visit. 

CHAPTER IX. 

THE THREE PRISONERS. 

Miss Howard, rising from her seat, inquired : 

“ To what are we indebted for so unexpected a visit from 
Mr. Dillon ? Surely he must know that we are prohibited 
going to the part of the dwelling where he resides, and I trust 
Colonel Howard will tell him that common justice requires 
we should be permitted to be private.” 

i disgraceful, contemptible. 


3 gloomy. 


62 


THE PILOT. 


The gentleman replied in a manner in which malig- 
nant 1 anger was sufficiently mingled with calculating humil- 
ity : 

“ Miss Howard will think better of my intrusion when she 
knows that I come on business of importance to her uncle. 
I hear a message from Captain Borroughcliffe. You may 
remember,” he continued, turning to the colonel, “that 
according to your suggestions the sentinels were to be changed 
every night, sir. Well, sir, your prudent precautions have not 
been thrown away ; the consequences are that we have already 
made three prisoners.” 

Mr. Dillon bowed with a deprecating humility, and having 
ascertained that Colonel Howard chose to give an audience 
where he was to the prisoners, he withdrew to execute his 
mission. 

“ Listen,” said Katherine, in a voice which bespoke her 
deep anxiety ; “ they draw near.” 

The long, low gallery, which was paved with a stone flag- 
ging, soon brought the footsteps of the approaching party 
more distinctly to their ears, and presently a low tap at the 
door announced their arrival. Colonel Howard arose, with 
the air of one who was to sustain the principal character in 
the ensuing interview, and bade them enter. Cecilia and 
Alice Dunscombe merely cast careless looks at the opening 
door, indifferent to the scene, but the quick eye of Katherine 
embraced at a glance every figure of the group. Drawing a 
long, quivering breath she fell back on the couch, and her 
eyes again lighted with their playful expression as she 
hummed a low, rapid air with a voice in which even the 
suppressed tones were liquid melody. 

Dillon entered, preceding the soldier, whose gait had be- 
come more steady, and in whose rigid eye a thoughtful expres- 
sion had taken the place of its former vacant gaze. The rest 
of the party continued in the gallery, while Mr. Dillon pre- 


malidous. 


THE THREE PRISONERS. 


63 


sented the renovated captain to the colonel, when the latter 
did him the same kind office with the ladies. 

“ Miss Plowden,” said the veteran, for she offered first in 
the circle, “ this is my friend Captain Borronghcliffe ; he has 
long been ambitious of this honor, and I have no doubt his 
reception will be such as to leave him no cause to repent he 
has been at last successful. 

“ This is Miss Alice Dunscombe, Captain Borroughcliffe, 
daughter of a very worthy clergyman who was formerly the 
curate of this parish, and a lady who does us the pleasure of 
giving us a good deal of her society, though far less than we 
all wish for.” 

The captain returned the civil inclination of Alice, and the 
colonel proceeded : 

“ Miss Howard, allow me to present Captain Borroughcliffe, 
a gentleman who, having volunteered to defend St. Ruth in 
these critical times, merits all the favor of its mistress.” 

Cecilia gracefully arose and received her guest with sweet 
complacency. The soldier made no reply to the customary 
compliments that she uttered, but stood an instant gazing at 
her speaking countenance, and then, laying his hand involun- 
tarily on his breast, bowed nearly to his sword-hilt. 

These formalities duly observed, the old colonel declared 
his readiness to receive the prisoners. 

The three men who now entered the apartment appeared to 
he nothing daunted by the presence into which they were 
ushered, though clad in the coarse and weather-beaten vest- 
ments of seamen who had been exposed to recent and severe 
duty. 

“ I trust ye are all good and loyal subjects,” the veteran 
commenced, “ but the times are such that even the most 
worthy characters become liable to suspicion. AVe have much 
reason to fear that a project is about to be undertaken on the 
coast by the enemy, who has appeared, we know, with a frigate 
and schooner ; and the audacity of the rebels is only equalled 


64 


THE PILOT. 


by their shameless and wicked disrespect for the rights of the 
sovereign/'* 

While Colonel Howard was uttering his apologetic preamble 
the prisoners fastened their eyes on him with much interest ; 
but when he alluded to the apprehended attack, the gaze of 
two of them became more keenly attentive, and before he con- 
cluded, they exchanged furtive 1 2 glances of deep meaning. No 
reply was made, however, and after a short pause, as if to 
allow time for his words to make a proper impression, the 
veteran continued : 

“ We have no evidence, I understand, that you are in the 
smallest degree connected with the enemies of this country ; 
but as you have been found out of the king^s highway, or, 
rather, on a by-path, it becomes no more than what self- 
preservation requires of us, to ask you a few such questions as, 
I trust, will be satisfactorily answered. To use your own nau- 
tical phrases, ‘ From whence came ye, pray ? * and * Whither 
are ye bound ? 9 99 

A low, deep voice replied : 

“ From Sunderland 3 last, and bound overland to White- 
haven. ” 3 

This simple and direct answer was hardly given before the 
attention of the listeners was called to Alice Dunscombe, who 
uttered a faint shriek, and rose from her seat involuntarily, 
while her eyes seemed to roll fearfully, and perhaps a little 
wildly, round the room. 

“ Are you ill, Miss Alice ? ” said the sweet, soothing tones of 
Cecilia Howard. “ You are, indeed you are. Lean on me, that 
I may lead you to your apartment . 99 

When they had gained the apartment, Katherine, after 
assisting her cousin to place Alice on her bed, returned to do 
the honors of the drawing-room. 

1 stealthy. 3 a seaport in the northwest part of 

2 a seaport in the northeast part of Eng- England, at the entrance to Solway 

land, at the mouth of the Wear River. Firth. 


THE THREE PRISONERS. 


65 


Colonel Howard ceased his examination of the prisoners at 
her entrance, to inquire with courtly solicitude after the 
invalid ; and when his questions were answered, he again pro- 
ceeded as follows : 

“ This is what the lads would call plain sailing, Borrough- 
cliffe — that they are out of employment in Sunderland, and 
have acquaintances and relatives in Whitehaven, to whom they 
are going for assistance and labor. All very probable, and 
perfectly harmless.” 

“ Nothing more so, my respectable host,” returned the 
jocund soldier ; “but it seemeth a grievous misfortune that a 
trio of such flesh and blood should need work wherewithal to 
exercise their thews and sinews, while so many of the vessels 
of his Majesty's fleet navigate the ocean in quest of the enemies 
of Old England.” 

“ There is truth in that ; much truth in your remark,” 
cried the colonel. “What say you, lads; will you fight the 
Erenchmen and the Don 1 — ay, and even my own rebellious 
and infatuated countrymen ? Here are five guineas apiece for 
you the moment you put foot on board the Alacrity cutter; 
and that can easily be done, as she lies at anchor this very night 
only two short leagues to the south of this.” 

Katherine Plowden, who hardly seemed to breathe, so close 
and intent was the interest with which she regarded the sea- 
men, fancied she observed lurking smiles on their faces ; but 
if her conjecture was true, their disposition to be merry went 
no further, and the one who had spoken hitherto replied, in 
the same calm tone as before : 

“ You will excuse us if we decline shipping in the cutter, 
sir ; we are used to distant voyages and large vessels, whereas 
the Alacrity is kept at coast duty, and is not of a size to lay 
herself alongside of a Don or a Frenchman with a double row 
of teeth.” 

“ I feel,” said Borroughcliffe, “it to be proper that I detain. 

1 a name given to Spaniards. 


5 


66 


THE PILOT. 


these men till to-morrow morning. Colonel Howard ; and yet 
I would give them better quarters than the hard benches of 
the guard-room." 

“ Act your pleasure. Captain Borroughcliffe," returned the 
host, “so you do but your duty to our royal master. They 
shall not want cheer, and they can have a room over the ser- 
vants’ offices in the south side of the abbey." 

“ Three rooms, my colonel, three rooms must be provided, 
though I give up my own." 

As this speech was uttered while the men were passing from 
the room, its effect on them was unnoticed ; but Katherine 
Plowden, who was left for a few moments by herself, sat and 
pondered over what she had seen and heard with a thoughtful- 
ness of manner that was not usual to her gay and buoyant 
spirits. The sounds of the retiring footsteps, however, gradu- 
ally grew fainter, and the return of her guardian alone 
recalled the recollection of the young lady to the duties of her 
situation. 

While engaged in the little offices of the tea-table, Kather- 
ine threw many furtive glances at the veteran ; but, although 
he seemed to be musing, there was nothing austere or suspi- 
cious in his frank, open countenance. 

“ There is much useless trouble taken with these wandering 
seamen, sir," said Katherine, at length ; “ it seems to be the 
particular province of Mr. Christopher Dillon to make all that 
come in contact with him excessively uncomfortable." 

“ You forget. Miss Katherine Plowden, that it is the pleas- 
ure of one of his Majesty’s officers to detain these men." 

“ But I thought that the glorious British constitution, which 
you so often mention," interrupted the young lady, spiritedly, 
“ gives liberty to all who touch these blessed shores ; you 
know, sir, that out of twenty blacks you brought with you, 
how few remain — the rest have fled on the wings of the spirit 
of British liberty." 

“ The blacks that you spoke of, they are a set of rebellious, 


THE MIDNIGHT VISITOR. 


67 


mutinous, ungrateful rascals, and if ever I meet one of 
them ” 

The colonel had so far controlled his feelings as to leave the 
presence of the lady before he broke out into bitter invectives, 
and Katherine stood a minute, pressing her forefinger on her 
lips, listening to his voice as it grumbled along the gallery, 
until the sounds were finally excluded by the closing of a dis- 
tant door. The wilful girl then shook her dark locks, and a 
smile of arch mischief blended with an expression of regret in 
her countenance, as she spoke to herself, while with hurried 
hands she threw her tea equipage aside in a confused pile : 

“ It was perhaps a cruel experiment, but it has succeeded. 
Though prisoners ourselves, we are at least free for the remain- 
der of the night. These mysterious sailors must be examined 
more closely. If the proud eye of Edward Griffith was not 
glaring under the black wig of one of them, I am no judge of 
features. And where has Master Barnstable concealed his 
charming visage ? — for neither of the others could be he. But 
now for Cecilia.” 


CHAPTEK X. 

THE MIDNIGHT VISITOR. * 

By the time the three seamen were placed in as many differ- 
ent rooms, and a sentinel was stationed in the gallery common 
to them all, in such a manner as to keep an eye on his whole 
charge at once, the hour had run deep into the night. Cap- 
tain Borroughcliffe obeyed a summons from the colonel, who 
made him an evasive apology, for the change in their evening's 
amusement, and challenged his guest to a renewal of the at- 
tack on the Madeira. In the meantime, Mr. Dillon became 
invisible, though a servant, when questioned by the host on 
the subject, announced that lie “believed Mr. Christopher had 
chosen to ride over to — — , to be in readiness to join the hunt 


68 


THE PILOT. 


on the morning, with the dawn.” While the gentlemen were 
indulging themselves in the dining-parlor, and laughing over 
the tales of other times and hard campaigns, two very differ- 
ent scenes occurred in other parts of the building. 

When the quiet of the abbey was only interrupted by the 
howling of the wind, or by the loud and prolonged laughs 
from the joyous pair who were comfortably established by the 
side of the bottle, a door was gently opened on one of the gal- 
leries of the “ cloisters,” and Katherine Plowden issued from 
it, wrapped in a close mantle, and holding in her hand a 
chamber-lamp. She was, however, soon followed by two other 
female figures, clad in the same manner, and provided with 
similar lights. When all were in the gallery, Katherine drew 
the door softly to and proceeded in front to lead the way. She 
led them with light and quick steps along the gallery, until 
they reached the termination, where they descended to the 
basement floor by a flight of steps ; and carefully opening a 
door, they emerged into the open air. They soon reached a 
large but rough addition to the buildings, into which they 
entered through a massive door that stood ajar as if to admit 
them. 

“ Chloe has been true to my orders,” whispered Katherine, 
as they passed out of the chilling air ; “now, if all the servants 
are asleep, our chance to escape unnoticed amounts to cer- 
tainty.” 

They were now near their goal, and stopped to examine 
whether any or what difficulties were likely to be opposed to 
their further progress. 

“ Now, indeed, our case seems hopeless,” whispered Kather- 
ine, as they stood concealed in darkness, in one end of an ex- 
tremely long, narrow passage ; “ here is the sentinel in the 
building, instead of being, as I had supposed, under the win- 
dows ; what is to be done now ? ” 

“Let us return,” whispered Cecilia; “my influence with 
my uncle is great, even though he seems unkind to us at 


THE MIDNIGHT VISITOR. 


69 


times. In the morning I will use it to persuade him to free 
them, on receiving their promise to abandon all such attempts 
in future.” 

“ In the morning will be too late,” returned Katherine ; “I 
saw that demon. Kit Dillon, mount his horse, under the pre- 
tence of riding to the great hunt to-morrow, but I know his 
malicious eye too well to be deceived in his errand.” 

“ Say no more,” said Alice Dunscombe, with a singular 
emotion ; “ some lucky circumstance may aid us with this 
sentinel.” 

As she spoke she advanced and addressed the sentinel. 

“ Say you there are three ? Are they men in years ?” 

“No, my lady, all good, serviceable lads, who couldn't do 
better than serve his Majesty, or, as it may prove, worse than 
to run away from their colors.” 

“ But are their years and appearance similar ? I ask, for 
I have a friend who has been guilty of some boyish tricks, and 
has tried the seas, I hear, among other foolish hazards.” 

“ There is no boy here. In the far room on the left is a 
smart, soldier-looking chap, of about thirty, who the captain 
thinks has carried a musket before now ; on him I am charged 
to keep a particular eye. Next to him is as pretty a looking 
youth as eyes could wish to see. In the room near you is a 
smaller, quiet little body, who might make a better preacher 
than a sailor or soldier either, he has such a gentle way with 
him.” 

Alice covered her eyes with her hand a moment, and then, 
recovering herself, proceeded : 

“ Gentleness may do more for the unfortunate men than fear. 
Here is a guinea : withdraw to the far end of the passage, 
where you can watch them as well as here, while we enter, and 
endeavor to make them confess who and what they really 
are.” 

The soldier took the money, and at length complied, as it 
was obviously true they could only escape by passing him. 


70 


THE PILOT. 


near the flight of steps. When he was beyond hearing, Alice 
Dunscombe turned to her companions and addressed them : 

“It would be idle to attempt to hide from you that I ex- 
pect to meet the individual whose voice I must have heard in 
reality to-night, instead of only imaginary sounds, as I vainly 
if not wickedly supposed. But no one can witness the inter- 
view except our God.” 

“Go, then,” said Katherine, secretly rejoicing at her de- 
termination, “while we inquire into the characters of the 
others.” 

Alice Dunscombe turned the key ; and, gently opening the 
door, she desired her companions to tap for her, as they re- 
turned, and then instantly disappeared in the apartment. 

Cecilia and her cousin proceeded to the next door, which 
they opened in silence, and entered cautiously into the room. 

The ladies found the youthful sailor whom they sought, 
with his body rolled in the shaggy covering, extended at his 
length along the naked boards, and buried in a deep sleep. 
The moment had now arrived when the character of Cecilia 
Howard appeared to undergo an entire change. Now she 
advanced before Katherine, and, extending her lamp in such 
a manner as to throw the light across the face of the sleeper, 
she bent to examine his countenance with keen and anxious 
eyes. 

“Am I right ?” whispered her cousin. 

“ May God, in his infinite compassion, pity and protect 
him ! ” murmured Cecilia, her whole frame involuntarily 
shuddering, as the conviction that she beheld Griffith flashed 
across her mind. “ Yes, Katherine, it is he, and presump- 
tuous madness has driven him here. But time presses ; he 
must be awakened, and his escape effected at every hazard.” 

“ Nay, then, delay no longer, but rouse him from his sleep.” 

“Griffith, Edward Griffith,” said the soft tones of Cecilia, 
“ Griffith, awake ! ” 

“Your call is useless,” said Katherine, “but I have heard 


THE MIDNIGHT VISITOR. 


71 


it said that the smallest touch will generally cause one of them 
to stir.” 

“ Griffith ! ” repeated Cecilia, laying her fair hand timidly 
on his own. 

The flash of lightning is not more nimble than the leap that 
the young man made to his feet, which he no sooner gained, 
than his dirk gleamed in the light of the lamps, as he bran- 
dished it fiercely with one hand, while with the other he ex- 
tended a pistol, in a menacing attitude, toward his disturbers. 

“ Stand back,” he exclaimed ; “I am your prisoner only 
as a corpse ! ” 

“Edward, it is I, Cecilia Howard, come to save you from 
destruction ; you are known through your ingenious dis- 
guise.” 

The pistol and the dirk fell together on the blanket of the 
young sailor, whose looks instantly lost their disturbed expres- 
sion in a glow of pleasure. 

“ Fortune favors me,” he cried. “ This is kind, Cecilia ; 
more than I deserve, and much more than I expected.” 

Griffith and Cecilia talked long and earnestly, when they 
were interrupted by Katherine, who exclaimed : 

“ Hark ! are there not footsteps approaching along the 
gallery ? ” 

They listened in breathless silence, and soon heard dis- 
tinctly the approaching tread of more than one person. Voices 
were quite audible, and before they had time to consult on what 
was best to be done, the words of the speakers were distinctly 
heard at the door of their own apartment. 

“Ay, he has a military air about him, Peters, that will 
make him a prize. Come, open the door.” 

“ This is not his room, your honor,” said the alarmed soldier ; 
“he quarters in the last room in the gallery.” 

“ How know you that, fellow ? Come, produce the key, 
and open the way for me. I care not who sleeps here ; there 
is no saying but I may enlist them all three.” 


72 


THE PILOT. 


A single moment of dreadful incertitude 1 succeeded, when 
the sentinel was heard saying, in reply to this peremptory 2 
order : 

“ I thought your honor wanted to see the one with the black 
stock , 3 and so left the rest of the keys at the other end of the 
passage ; hut ■” 

“ But nothing, you loon ! A sentinel should always carry his 
keys about him, like a jailer. Follow, then, and let me see the 
lad who dresses so well, to the right.” 

As the heart of Katherine began to beat less violently, she 
said : 

“ J Tis Borroughcliffe, and too drunk to see that we have left 
the key in the door. But what is to be done ? We have but a 
moment for consultation.” 

“ As the day dawns,” said Cecilia, quickly, “ I shall send here, 
under the pretence of conveying food, my own woman ” 

“ There is no need of risking anything for my safety,” inter- 
rupted Griffith ; “I hardly think we shall be detained, and, if 
we are, Barnstable is at hand with a force that would scatter 
these recruits to the four winds of heaven.” 

“ Ah, that would lead to bloodshed and scenes of horror ! ” 
exclaimed Cecilia. 

“ Listen,” cried Katherine ; “ they approach again.” 

A man now stopped once more at the door, which was 
opened softly, and the face of the sentinel was thrust into the 
apartment. 

“ Captain Borroughcliffe is on his rounds, and for fifty of 
your guineas I would not leave you here another minute.” 

“But one word more,” said Cecilia. 

“Kota syllable, my lady, for my life !” returned the man ; 
“the lady in the next room waits for you, and, in mercy to a 
poor fellow, go back where you came from.” 

The appeal was unanswerable, and they complied ; Cecilia 
saying, as they left the room : 

1 uncertainty. 2 positive. s wide cravat. 


THE MIDNIGHT VISITOR. 


73 


Ci I shall send food in the morning, young man, and direc- 
tions how to take the remedy necessary to your safety." 

In the passage they found Alice Dunscombe with her face 
concealed in her mantle, and it would seem, by the heavy sighs 
that escaped from her, deeply agitated by the interview which 
she had just encountered. 

Alice Dunscombe did not find the second of the prisoners 
buried, like Griffith, in sleep. Her approach was, however, 
unheeded, until the light from her lamp glared across his eyes, 
when he started from his musing posture and advanced to 
meet her. He was the first to speak. 

“I expected this visit," he said, “when I found that you 
recognized my voice ; and I felt the deep assurance in my 
breast that Alice Dunscombe would never betray me." 

“ It was, then, no mysterious warning, no airy voice that 
mocked my ear, hut a dread reality," she at length said. “ On 
what errand of fell mischief has your ruthless temper again 
urged you to embark ?" 

“This is strong and cruel language coming from you to me, 
Alice Dunscombe," returned the stranger. 

“There is much, perhaps, to be said in explanation, that 
you do not know. I left the country because I found in it 
nothing hut oppression and injustice, and I could not invite 
you to become the bride of a wanderer, without either name 
or fortune. But I have now the opportunity of proving my 
truth." 

“ You talk not like a man whose very life hangs but on a 
thread that the next minute may snap asunder. Whither 
would you lead me ? Is it to the Tower 1 at London ? " 

“ Think not I have weakly exposed my person without a 
sufficient protection," returned the stranger. 

“Then has the conjecture of Colonel Howard been true, 
and the manner in which the enemy's vessels have passed the 
shoals is no longer a mystery. You have been their pilot ! " 

i a famous state prison. 


74 


THE PILOT. 


“I have.” 

“ What ! would ye pervert the knowledge gained in the 
springtime of your guileless youth to the foul purpose of 
bringing desolation to the doors of those you once knew and 
respected ?” 

The pilot turned quickly in his short walk ; and, after 
reading her countenance with the expression of one who felt 
his security, he said in gentler tone : 

“ It is only to make the signal, to draw around me a force 
sufficient to scatter these dogs of soldiers to the four winds of 
heaven.” 

“ Have you calculated your power justly, John ? ” said 
Alice, unconsciously betraying her deep interest in his safety. 
“ Have you reckoned the probability of Mr. Dillon's arriving, 
accompanied by an armed band of horsemen, with the morn- 
ing's sun ? ” 

“ Dillon ! ” exclaimed the pilot, starting ; “ who is he, and 
on what suspicion does he seek addition to your guard ? ” 

“Nay, John, look not at me as if you would know the 
secret of my heart. It was not I who prompted him to such a 
step ; you cannot for a moment think I would betray you !” 

“Fear not for me, Alice,” returned the pilot, proudly; 
“ and yet I like not this movement, either. How call you his 
name — Dillon ? Is he a minion 1 of King George ? ” 

“He is, John, what you are not, a loyal subject of his sov- 
ereign lord the king, and a native of the revolted Colonies.” 

“ An American, and disloyal to the liberties of the human 
race ! He had better not cross me ; for, if my arm reach him, 
it shall hold him forth as a spectacle of treason to the world.” 

“ And has not the world enough of such a spectacle in your- 
self ? ” asked Alice. 

A dark and fierce expression of angry resentment flashed 
from the eyes of the pilot, and even his iron frame seemed to 
shake with emotion, as he answered : 


1 a favorite. 


THE MIDNIGHT VISITOR. 


75 


“ Call you this dastardly and selfish treason, aiming, as it 
does, to aggrandize a few at the expense of millions, a parallel 
case to the generous ardor that impels a man to fight in the 
defence of sacred liberty ? ” 

The pilot smiled disdainfully, and, throwing open the rough 
exterior of his dress, he drew forth in succession several arti- 
cles, while a glowing pride lighted his countenance, as he 
offered them singly to her notice. 

“ See, Alice,” he said ; “ this broad sheet of parchment is 
stamped with a seal of no mean importance, and it hears the 
royal name of the princely Louis also. And view this cross, 
decorated as it is with jewels, the gift of the same illustrious 
hand ; it is not apt to be given to the children of infamy, 
neither is it wise or decorous to stigmatize 1 a man who has 
not been thought unworthy to consort with princes and 
nobles by the opprobrious name of the f Scotch pirate/” 

Alice Dunscombe cast a furtive and timid glance at the 
pilot, which spoke even stronger than her words, as she re- 
plied : 

“ I know not that all which is said of you and your deeds is 
true. I have often prayed, in bitterness and sorrow, that a 
tenth part of that which is laid to your charge may not be 
heaped on your devoted head at the great and final account.” 

“ Alice Dunscombe,” said the pilot, approaching her with 
solemn earnestness, I have learned much this night, though 
I came not in quest of such knowledge. They call me pirate ! 
If I have claim to the name, it was furnished more by the 
paltry outfit of my friends, than by any act toward my ene- 
mies ! ” 

“ And do not these recollections prompt you to return to 
your allegiance, to your prince and native land, John ?” said 
Alice, in a subdued voice. 

“ Away with the silly thought ! ” interrupted the pilot, re- 
called to himself as if by a sudden conviction of the weakness 


to brand. 


76 


THE PILOT. 


he had betrayed. “ I have power to rescue myself and com- 
panions from this paltry confinement, and yet I w r ould not 
have it done with violence, for your sake. Bring you the 
means of doing it in quiet ?” 

“ When the morning arrives you will all be conducted to 
the apartment where we first met. This will be done at the 
solicitation of Miss Howard, under the plea of compassion and 
justice, and with the professed object of inquiring into your 
situations. Her request will not be refused ; and while your 
guard is stationed at the door, you will be shown, by another 
entrance, through the private apartments of the wing, to a 
window whence you can easily leap to the ground, where a 
thicket is at hand ; afterward, we shall trust your safety to 
your own discretion. ” 

“ And if this Dillon of whom you have spoken should sus- 
pect the truth, how will you answer to the law for aiding our 
escape ? ” 

“ They can but take my life, John ; and that I am ready to 
lay down in your service.” 

“ Alice ! ” exclaimed the softened pilot, “ my kind, my gen- 
tle Alice ! ” 

The knock of the sentinel was heard at the door at this crit- 
ical moment. Without waiting for a reply to his summons, 
the man entered the apartment, and in hurried language de- 
clared the urgent necessity that existed for the lady to retire. 
A few brief remonstrances were uttered by both Alice and the 
pilot, who wished to comprehend more clearly each other’s in- 
tentions relative to the intended escape ; but the fear of per- 
sonal punishment rendered the soldier obdurate, and a dread 
of exposure induced the lady to comply. She arose, and was 
leaving the apartment with lingering steps, when the pilot, 
touching her hand, whispered to her impressively : 

“ Alice, we meet again before I leave this island forever ?” 

“We meet in the morning, John,” she returned in the 
same tone of voice, “in the apartments of Miss Howard.” 


CAPTAIN BORROUGHCLIFFE’S MISTAKE. 


77 


CHAPTER XI. 

CAPTAIN BOKROUGHCLIFFE'S MISTAKE. 

The countenance of Captain Borroughcliffe, when the senti- 
nel admitted him to the apartment he had selected, was in a 
state of doubtful illumination. “ Comrade, I greet ye," said 
he, staggering to the side of the prisoner, where he seated 
himself with an entire absence of ceremony ; t( comrade, I 
greet ye. I have put a bottle of sparkling Madeira in my 
pocket with a couple of glasses, which we will discuss while 
we talk over more important matters. Thrust your hand into 
my right pocket ; I have been used to dress to the front so 
long that it comes mighty awkward to me to make this back- 
ward motion, as if it were into a cartridge-box." 

Manual, who had been at a loss how to construe the manner 
of the other, perceived at once a good deal of plain English in 
this request, and he dislodged one of Colonel Howard's dusty bot- 
tles with a dexterity that denoted the earnestness of his purpose. 

“1 like one of your musty -looking bottles, that is covered 
with dust and cobwebs, with a good southern tan on it," 
Borroughcliffe said. <e Such liquor does not abide in the 
stomach, but gets into the • heart at once and becomes blood 
in the beating of a pulse. But I knew you the instant I saw 
you. I have seen you before." 

“ We may have met before, as I have been much in service, 
and yet I know not where you could have seen me," said 
Manual. “ Were you ever a prisoner of war ?" 

“ Hum ! not exactly such an unfortunate devil, but a sort of 
conventional non-combatant. You know not where I could 
have seen you ? I have seen you on parade, in the field, in 
battle and out of battle, in camp, in barracks — in short, 
everywhere but in a drawing-room. No, no ; I have never 
seen you before this night in a drawing-room." 


78 


THE PILOT. 


Manual stared in a good deal of wonder and some uneasiness 
at these confident assertions which promised to put his life 
in no little jeopardy ; 1 he made a heavy draught before he 
said : 

“ Yon will swear to this — can you call me by name ?” 

“ Swear not ! ” said Borroughcliffe, with a solemn air ; “ for 
what mattereth an empty name ? Call thyself by what appella- 
tion thou wilt, I know thee. Soldier is written on thy martial 
front ; thy knee bendeth not ; nay, I even doubt if the rebel- 
lious member bow in prayer ” 

“ Come, sir,” interrupted Manual, a little sternly; “no 
more of this trifling, but declare your will at once. Rebellious 
member, indeed ! These fellows will call the skies of America 
rebellious heavens shortly.” 

“You are a soldier and I am a soldier. That you are a 
soldier my orderly could tell, for the dog has both seen a cam- 
paign and smelt villainous saltpetre when compounded accord- 
ing to a wicked invention ; but it required the officer to detect 
the officer. Privates do not wear such linen as this, which 
seemeth to me an unreasonably cool attire for the season ; 
nor velvet stocks with silver buckles ; nor is there often the 
odorous flavor of sweet-scented pomatum to be discovered 
around their greasy locks. In short, thou art both soldier and 
officer.” 

“ I confess it,” said Manual ; “I hold the rank of captain, 
and shall expect the treatment of one.” 

“ I think I have furnished you with wine fit for a general,” 
returned Borroughcliffe ; “but have your own way. Now, it 
would be apparent to men, whose faculties had not been ren- 
dered clear by such cordials as this dwelling aboundeth with, 
that when officers journey through the island, clad in the 
uniform incognitorum , 2 which in your case means the marine 
corps, that something is in the wind of more than usual 
moment.” 


1 peril. 


2 of unknown persons. 


CAPTAIN BORROUGHCLIFFE’S MISTAKE. 


79 


By this time Manual had discovered that he was safe, and 
he returned to the conversation with a revival of ready wits, 
which had been strangely paralyzed by his previous disorder 
in the region of the throat. 

“ There is some stir, a good deal of foolish apprehension, 
and a great deal of idle curiosity, among certain of the tenants 
of this house, on your account. They fear the rebels, who, 
we all know, have not soldiers enough to do their work neatly 
at home, and who, of course, would never think of sending 
any here. You wish to be snug ; I wish to serve a brother in 
distress. Through that window you must be supposed to fly 
— no matter how ; while by following me you can pass the sen- 
tinel, and retire peaceably, like any other mortal, on your own 
two stout legs.” 

This was a result that exceeded all that Manual had antici- 
pated from their amicable but droll dialogue ; and the hint 
was hardly given, before he threw on the garments that agita- 
tion had before rendered such incumbrances, and, in less time 
than we have taken to relate it, the marine was completely 
equipped for his departure. In the meantime. Captain Bor- 
roughclitfe raised himself to an extremely erect posture, which 
he maintained with the inflexibility of a rigid martinet . 1 
When he found himself established on his feet, the soldier 
intimated to his prisoner that he was ready to proceed. The 
doorway was instantly opened by Manual, and together they 
entered the gallery. 

“Who comes there?” cried the sentinel, with a vigilance 
and vigor that he intended should compensate for his previous 
neglect of duty. 

“Walk straight, that he may see you,” said Borroughcliffe, 
with much philosophy. 

“Who goes there?” repeated the sentinel, throwing his 
musket to a poise with a rattling that echoed along the naked 
walls. 


i strict disciplinarian. 


80 


THE PILOT. 


“Walk crooked,” added Borroughcliffe, “that if he fire he 
may miss.” 

“We shall be shot at, with this folly,” muttered Manual. 
“We are friends, and your officer is one of us.” 

“ Stand, friends ; advance, officer, and give the countersign,” 
cried the sentinel. 

Manual made an eager step forward, when, recollecting him- 
self, he turned and added : 

“ My assistants, the seamen ; I can do nothing without 
them.” 

“ The keys are in the doors, ready for my admission,” said 
the Englishman ; “turn them and bring out your forces.” 

Quick as thought Manual was in the room of Griffith, to 
whom he communicated the situation of affairs, when he reap- 
peared in the passage, and then proceeded on a similar errand 
to the room of the pilot, who arose and obeyed the instructions 
without asking a question. The captain now beckoned to 
Manual to advance and give the countersign. 

“ Loyalty,” whispered Manual, when he approached the sen- 
tinel. But the soldier had been allowed time to reflect, and, 
as he understood the situation of his officer, he hesitated to 
allow the prisoner to pass. After a moment's pause, he said : 

“Advance, friends.” At this summons the whole party 
moved to the point of his bayonet, when the man continued : 

“The prisoners have the countersign, Captain Borrough- 
cliffe, but I dare not let them pass.” 

“ Why not ?” asked the captain ; “am I not here, sirrah ? 
Do you not know me ?” 

“ Yes, sir, I know your honor and respect your honor ; but 
I was posted here by my sergeant, and ordered not to let these 
men pass out on any account.” 

Here the young sailor interrupted by exclaiming : “ Follow 
me ! ” The sentinel was turning as Griffith spoke, when, 
springing forward, in an instant he wrenched the musket 
from his hands j a heavy blow with its butt felled the aston- 


CAPTAIN BORROUGHCLIFFE’S MISTAKE. 


81 


ished soldier to the floor ; then, poising his weapon, Griffith 
exclaimed : 

“ Forward ! we can clear our own way now !” 

“ On ! ” said the pilot, leaping lightly over the prostrate 
soldier, dagger gleaming in one hand, and a pistol presented in 
the other. 

Manual was at his side in an instant, armed in a similar 
manner ; and the three rushed together from the building, 
without meeting any one to oppose their flight. 

Borroughclifle was utterly unable to follow ; he passed the 
remainder of the night in the heavy sleep of the bacchanalian , 1 
and awoke the next morning only when aroused by the entrance 
of his servant. When the customary summons had induced 
the captain to unclose his eyelids, he arose in his bed, and de- 
manded of his man what occasioned the unusual noise in the 
courtyard. 

“ *Tis nothing but the party of dragoons from , who are 

wheeling into the courtyard, sir, where the colonel has gone 
£o receive them.” 

Hastening to dress, the recruiting officer was soon prepared 
to meet newcomers, and he accordingly descended to the 
courtyard, as in duty bound, to receive them in proper person. 
Borroughclifle encountered his host in earnest conversation 
with a young man in cavalry uniform, in the principal entrance 
of the abbey, and was greeted by the former with : 

“ A good morning to you, my worthy guard and protector ! 
Here is good news for your royal ears. It seems that our pris- 
oners are enemies to the king, in disguise. And, Cornet Fitz- 
gerald, Captain Borroughclifle of the th ; permit me to 

make you acquainted with Mr. Fitzgerald of the th light 

dragoons.” While the soldiers exchanged their salutations, the 
old man continued : “ The cornet has been kind enough to 

lead down a detachment of his troops to escort the rogues up to 
London, or some other place, where they will find enough good 

» devote to Bacchus, the god of wine, 

G 


82 


THE PILOT. 


and loyal officers to form a court-martial that can authorize 
their execution as spies. Christopher Dillon, my worthy kins- 
man Kit, saw their real characters at a glance ; while you and 
I, like two unsuspecting boys, thought the rascals would be fit 
men to serve the king. But Kit has an eye and a head that 
few enjoy like him, and I would that he might receive his dues 
at the English bar." 

“ What reason has Mr. Christopher Dillon to believe that 
the three seamen are more or less than they seem ? 99 said Bor- 
rough cliffe. 

“ I know not what ; but a good and sufficient reason, I will 
venture my life,” cried the colonel ; “ trust me, Kit has rea- 
sons, and in good time will he deliver them.” 

“ I hope, then,” said the captain, carelessly, “ that it maybe 
found that we have had a proper watch on our charge. Colonel 
Howard. I think you told me that the windows were too high 
for escape in that direction, for I had no sentinel outside of 
the building. Let us go and see the prisoners ; perhaps they 
may quietly enroll themselves under the banners of our sover- 
eign, when all other interference, save that of wholesome disci- 
pline, will become unnecessary.” 

They ascended the flight of stone steps which led to the up- 
per apartments, where the prisoners were supposed to be con- 
fined. As the hours passed away, the period had come round 
when the man who had been present at the escape of Griffith 
and his friends was again posted to perform the duty of senti- 
nel. As the soldier well knew the situation of his trust, he 
was coolly adjusted, with his back against the wall, endeavoring 
to compensate himself for his disturbed slumber during the 
night, when the sounds of the approaching footsteps warned 
him to assume the appearance of watchfulness. 

“ Open here first, Mr. Sergeant ; this cage holds the man 
we most want,” said Dillon. 

Borroughclifie motioned to the sergeant to open the door, 
when the whole party entered the vacant room. 


CAPTAIN BORROUGHCLIFFE’S MISTAKE. 


83 


“ Your prisoner has escaped,” cried the cornet, after a sin- 
gle moment employed in making sure of the fact. 

“ Never ! It must not, shall not be ! ” cried Dillon, quiver- 
ing with rage, as he glanced his eyes furiously around the 
apartment. “ Here has been treachery and foul treason to the 
king ! ” 

“By whom committed, Mr. Dillon ?” said Borroughcliffe, 
knitting his brow, and speaking in a suppressed tone. “ Dare 
you, or any man living, charge treason to the th ? ” 

“ Colonel Howard will understand the cause of my warm 
feelings when I tell him this very room contained last night 
that disgrace to his name and country, as well as traitor to his 
king, Edward Griffith, of the rebel navy.” 

“ What ! ” exclaimed the colonel, starting, “has that recreant 
youth dared to pollute the threshold of St. Ruth with his foot- 
step ? But you dream. Kit ; there would be too much hardi- 
hood in the act.” 

“ It appears not, sir,” returned the other ; “ for, though in 
this very apartment he most certainly was, he is here no longer. 
And yet from this window, though open, escape would seem to 
be impossible, even with much assistance.” 

“ If I thought that the contumelious 1 boy had dared to be 
guilty of such an act of gross impudence,” cried the colonel, 
“I should be tempted to resume my arms in my old age to 
punish his effrontery. What ! is it not enough that he entered 
my dwelling in the Colony, availing himself of the distraction 
of the times, with an intent to rob me of my choicest jewel — 
ay, gentlemen, even my brother Harry's daughter — but that 
he must also invade this hallowed island with a like purpose, 
thus thrusting his treason, as it were, into the presence of his 
abused prince ! No, no. Kit, thy loyalty misleads thee ; he 
has never dared to do the deed ! ” 

“ Listen, sir, and you shall be convinced,” returned the 
pliant Christopher. “ I do not wonder at your unbelief ; but 

i insolent. 


84 


THE PILOT. 


as a good testimony is the soul of justice, I cannot resist its 
influence. You know that two vessels, corresponding in ap- 
pearance to the two rebel cruisers that annoyed us so much in 
the Carolinas, have been seen on the coast for several days, 
which induced us to beg the protection of Captain Borrough- 
cliffe. Three men were found, the day succeeding that on 
which we hear that these vessels came within the shoals, steal- 
ing through the grounds of St. Ruth in sailors’ attire. They 
were arrested, and in the voice of one of them, sir, I imme- 
diately detected that of the traitor Griffith. He was dis- 
guised, it is true, and cunningly so ; but when a man has 
devoted his whole life to the business of investigating truth,” 
he added with an air of much modesty, “ it is difficult to 
palm any disguise on his senses.” 

“Well, sergeant,” asked Borroughcliffe, “do you find the 
other two ? ” 

“ They are gone together, your honor,” returned the or- 
derly, who just then reentered from an examination of the 
other apartments ; “ and, unless the Evil One helped them off, 
it’s a mysterious business to me.” 

“Colonel Howard,” said Borroughcliffe, gravely, “your 
precious south-side cordial must he banished from the board, 
regularly with the cloth, until I have my revenge ; for satisfac- 
tion of this insult is mine to claim, and I seek it this instant. 
Go, Drill ; detail a guard for the protection of the house, and 
feed the rest of your command, and we will take the field.” 

“ Had I not better take hasty refreshment for my men and 
their horses,” asked the cornet, “and then make a sweep for 
a few miles along the coast ? It may be my luck to encounter 
the fugitives, or some part of their force.” 

“To me, Captain Borroughcliffe,” said Colonel Howard, 
“ belongs, of right, the duty of defending St. Ruth, and it 
shall be no boy’s play to force my works. Come, let us to 
breakfast, and then Dillon shall mount and act as a guide to 
the horse along the difficult passes of the seashore.” 


CAPTAIN - BORROUGHCLIFFE’S MISTAKE. 


85 


“ To breakfast, then, let it be,” cried the captain ; “I distrust 
not my new commander of the fortress. We follow you, my 
worthy host.” 

St. Ruth lay but a short two miles from the ocean,, to which 
numerous roads led through the grounds of the abbey, which 
extended to the shore. Along one of these paths Dillon con- 
ducted his party, until, after a few minutes of hard riding, 
they approached the cliffs ; when, posting his troopers under 
the cover of a little copse, the cornet rode in advance with his 
guide to the verge of the perpendicular rocks, whose bases 
were washed by the foam that still whitened the waters from 
the surges of the subsiding sea. The eyes of the horsemen 
were cast in vain over the immense expanse of water that w r as 
glistening brightly under the rays of the sun in quest of some 
object or distant sail that might confirm their suspicions or 
relieve their doubts. Dillon was withdrawing his eyes in dis- 
appointment from the vacant view, when, as they fell toward 
the shore, he beheld that which caused him to exclaim : 

“ There they go, and they will escape ! ” 

The cornet looked in the direction of the other’s finger, 
when he beheld, at a short distance from the land, a little boat 
that looked like a dark shell upon the water, rising and sink- 
ing amid the waves, as if the men it obviously contained were 
resting on their oars in idle expectation. 

“ >Tis they ! ” continued Dillon ; “ or, what is more prob- 
able, it is their boat waiting to convey them to their vessel.” 

“ And what is to be done ? They cannot be made to feel 
horse where they are ; nor would the muskets of the foot be 
of any use. A light three-pounder would do its work hand- 
somely on them.” 

After 'a moment of musing, Dillon replied : 

“ The runaways must be on the land ; and by scouring the 
coast, and posting men at proper intervals, their retreat can 
easily be prevented. In the meantime I will ride under the 
whip to Bay, where one of his Majesty’s cutters lies at 


86 


THE PILOT. 


anchor. It is but half an hour of hard riding, and I can he on 
board of her. The wind blows directly in her favor, and if we 
can once bring her down behind that headland, we shall infal- 
libly cut off or sink these midnight depredators.” 

“ Off, then ! ” cried the cornet, whose young blood was boil- 
ing for a skirmish ; “ you will at least drive them to the shore, 
where I can deal with them.” 

The words were hardly uttered before Dillon was out of 
sight. 

The plain old seaman who commanded the cutter listened 
to his tale with cautious ears, and examined into the state of 
the weather, and other matters connected with his duty, with 
the slow and deliberate decision of one who had never done 
much to acquire confidence in himself, and who had been nig- 
gardly rewarded for the little he had actually performed. 

As Dillon was urgent, however, and the day seemed propi- 
tious, he at length decided to act as he was desired, and the 
cutter was accordingly gotten under way. 

A crew of something less than fifty men moved with no lit- 
tle of their commander's deliberation ; but as the little vessel 
rounded the point behind which she was anchored, her guns 
were cleared, and the usual preparations were completed for 
immediate and actual service. 

Dillon, sorely against his will, was compelled to continue on 
board, in order to point out the place where the unsuspecting 
boatmen were expected to be entrapped. 

CHAPTER XII. 

LONG TOM AND HIS STRANGE WEAPON. 

The feelings which had induced both Griffith and Barn- 
stable to accompany the pilot with so much willingness were 
entirely personal. The short intercourse that he had main- 
tained with his associates enabled the mysterious leader of 


LONG TOM AND HIS STRANGE WEAPON. 


87 


their party to understand the characters of his two principal 
officers so thoroughly, as to induce him, when he landed with 
the purpose of reconnoitring to ascertain whether the objects 
of his pursuit still held their determination to assemble at the 
appointed hour, to choose Griffith and Manual as his only 
associates ; leaving Barnstable in command of his own vessel, 
to await their return and to cover their retreat. It was the 
strong desire of Griffith to reconnoitre the abbey, which car- 
ried them a little out of their proper path, and led to the con- 
sequences that we have partly related. 

The evening of that day was the time when the pilot in- 
tended to complete his enterprise, thinking to entrap his game 
while enjoying the festivities that usually succeeded their 
sports ; and an early hour in the morning was appointed when 
Barnstable should appear at the nearest point to the abbey, to 
take off his countrymen, in order that they might as little as 
possible be subjected to the gaze of their enemies by daylight. 
If they failed to arrive at the appointed time, his instructions 
were to return to his schooner, which lay snugly embayed in a 
secret and retired haven that hut few ever approached by 
land or water. 

While the young cornet still continued gazing at the whale- 
boat (for it was the party from the schooner that he saw), the 
hour expired for the appearance of Griffith and his compan- 
ions ; and Barnstable reluctantly determined to comply with 
the letter of his instructions, and leave them to their own 
sagacity and skill to regain the Ariel. The boat h.ad been 
suffered to ride in the edge of the surf since the appearance 
of the sun ; and the eyes of her crew were kept anxiously 
fixed on the cliffs, though in vain, to discover the signal that 
was to call them to the place of landing. After looking at his 
watch for the twentieth time, and as often casting glances of 
uneasy dissatisfaction toward the shore, the lieutenant ex- 
claimed : 

“ A charming prospect this, Master Coffin, hut rather too 


88 


THE PILOT. 


much poetry in it for your taste ; I believe you relish no land 
that is of a harder consistency than mud.” 

“I was born on the waters, sir,” returned the cockswain, 
from his snug abode where he was bestowed with his usual 
economy of room, “and it’s according to all things for a man 
to love his native soil.” 

The cockswain cast a cool glance at the crests of foam that 
were breaking over the tops of the billows, within a few yards 
of where their boat was riding, and calling aloud to his men : 

“ Pull a stroke or two ; away with her into dark water.” 

While this necessary movement was making, Barnstable 
arose and surveyed the cliffs with keen eyes, and then, turning 
once more in disappointment from his search, he said : 

“ Pull more from the land, and let her run down at an easy 
stroke to the schooner. Keep a lookout at the cliffs, boys ; it 
is possible that they are stowed in some of the holes in the 
rocks, for it’s no daylight business they are on.” 

The order was promptly obeyed, and they glided along for 
nearly a mile in this manner, in the most profound silence. 

“ Here comes the English in chase ! ” exclaimed the spokes- 
man of the boat. 

“ What mean you, fellow ? ” cried Barnstable. 

“ Captain Barnstable can look for himself,” returned the 
seaman, “and tell whether I speak truth.” 

The young sailor turned and saw the Alacrity bearing 
down before the wind with all her sails set, as she rounded a 
headland, but a short half league to the windward of the place 
where the boat lay. 

“ Pass that glass to me,” said the captain, with steady com- 
posure. “ This promises us work in two ways. If she be 
armed, it has become our turn to run ; if not, we are strong 
enough to carry her.” 

A very brief survey made the experienced officer acquainted 
with the true character of the vessel in sight, and, replacing 
the glass with much coolness, he said : 


LONG TOM AND HIS STRANGE WEAPON. 


89 


‘‘That fellow shows long arms and ten teeth, besides King 
George's pennant from his masthead. Now, my lads, you 
are to pnll for your lives." 

The men well understood the manner and meaning of their 
commander, and, throwing aside their coats, they applied 
themselves in earnest to their task. 

“Ah, there is much philosophy in that stroke. Long 
Tom ! " cried the commander. “ Keep it up, boys ; and if we 
gain nothing else we shall at least gain time for deliberation. 
Come, Master Coffin, what think you ? " 

While Barnstable was speaking a column of white smoke 
was seen issuing from the bows of the cutter ; and, as the 
report of a cannon was wafted to their ears, the shot was seen 
skipping from w T ave to wave, tossing the water in spray, and 
flying to a considerable distance beyond them. The cock- 
swain, who scanned the range with an eye of more practice 
than the rest, observed : ‘ ‘ That's a lively piece for its metal, 
and it speaks with a good clear voice ; but, if they hear it 
aboard the Ariel , the man who fired it will be sorry it wasn’t 
born dumb." 

“ You are the prince of philosophers. Master Coffin," cried 
Barnstable ; “ there is some hope in that. Let the Englishmen 
talk away, and, my life on it, the e Ariels ' don't believe it is 
thunder. Hand me a musket ; I'll draw a shot." 

The piece was given to Barnstable, who discharged it several 
times, as if to taunt their enemies ; and the scheme was com- 
pletely successful. Goaded by the insults, the cutter discharged 
gun after gun at the little boat, throwing her shot frequently 
so as to wet her crew with the spray, but without injuring them 
in the least. The failure of these attempts of the enemy excited 
the mirth of the reckless seamen instead of creating alarm ; 
and whenever a shot came nearer than common, the cockswain 
would utter some such expression as : 

“ A ground swell, a long shot, and a small object make a 
clean target or, “ A man must squint straight to hit a boat." 


90 


THE PILOT. 


As the cutter was constantly gaining on the whale-boat* 
there was a prospect of a speedy termination of the chase* when 
the report of a cannon was thrown back like an echo from one 
of the Englishman's discharges* and Barnstable and his com- 
panions had the pleasure of seeing the Ariel stretching slowly 
out from the little bay where she had passed the night* with 
the smoke of defiance curling above her tapering masts. 

In a few minutes the whale-boat reached the schooner* when 
the crew of the latter received their commander and his com- 
panions with shouts and cheers that rang across the waters and 
reached the ears of the disappointed spectators on the verge of 
the cliffs. 

The joyful shouts and hearty cheers of the Ariel’s crew con- 
tinued for some time after her commander had reached her 
deck. Barnstable answered the congratulations of his officers 
by cordial shakes of the hand, and after waiting for the ebulli- 
tion 1 of delight among the seamen to subside a little* he beck- 
oned with an air of authority for silence. 

“ I thank you* my lads* for your good-will*" he said* when 
all were gathered around him in deep attention ; “ they have 
given us a tough chase* and if you had left us another mile to 
go* we had been lost. That fellow is a king's cutter, and 
though his disposition to run to leeward is a good deal molli- 
fied, yet he shows signs of fight ; at any rate, he is stripping 
off some of his clothes* which looks as if he were game. 
Luckily for us. Captain Manual has taken all the marines 
ashore with him." 

The Ariel had been kept under a cloud of canvas, as near to 
the wind as she could lie ; and as this was her best sailing, she 
had stretched swiftly out from the land to a distance, whence 
the cliffs* and the soldiers who were spread along their summits, 
became plainly visible. Barnstable turned his glass repeatedly 
from the cutter to the shore, as different feelings predominated 2 
in his breast* before he again spoke. 

1 outward display of feeling. 


2 mastered. 


LONG TOM AND HIS STRANGE WEAPON. 


91 


“ If Mr. Griffith is stowed away among those rocks,” he at 
length said, “ he shall see as pretty an argument discussed, in 
as few w T ords, as he ever listened to, provided the gentlemen in 
yonder cutter have not changed their minds as to the road they 
intend to journey. What think you, Mr. Merry ?” 

“I wish with all my heart and soul, sir,” returned the fear- 
less boy, “ that Mr. Griffith was safe aboard of us ; it seems 
the country is alarmed, and God knows what may happen if he 
is taken ! As to the fellow to windward, hell find it easier to 
deal with the Ariel’s boat than with her mother. But he car- 
ries a broad sail ; I question if he means to show play.” 

“ Never doubt him, boy,” said Barnstable ; “he is working 
off the shore, like a man of sense ; and, besides, he has his spec- 
tacles on trying to make out what tribe of Yankee Indians we 
belong to. Tell the drummer, sir, to beat to quarters.” 

The boy commenced that short, rub-a-dub air that will at 
any time rouse a thousand men from their deepest sleep, and 
cause them to fly to their means of offence with a common 
soul. 

The English cutter held her way from the land until she got 
an offing of more than two miles, when she reduced her sails 
to a yet smaller number ; and, heaving into the wind, she fired 
a gun in a direction opposite to that which pointed to the Ariel. 

“Now I would wager a quintal 1 of codfish. Master Coffin,” 
said Barnstable, “ against the best cask of porter that was ever 
brewed in England, that fellow believes a Yankee schooner can 
fly in the wind's eye. If he wishes to speak to us, why don't 
he give the cutter a little sheet and come down ? ” 

“ He hugs the wind, sir, as if it was his sweetheart,” was 
the cockswain's answer ; “but he'll let go his hold soon. It's 
no hard matter to knock a few cloths out their bolt-ropes, when 
she will both drop astern and to leeward.” 

“ I believe there is good sense in your scheme this time,” 
said Barnstable ; “ for I am anxious about the frigate's people, 

1 weight of a hundred pounds. 


92 


THE PILOT. 


though I hate a noisy chase. Speak to him, Tom, and let us 
see if he will answer.” 

“ Ay, ay, sir,” cried the cockswain, applying a match with a 
rapid motion to the priming. 

“ There go the chips,” cried Barnstable. “Bravo ! Master 
Coffin, your never planted iron in the ribs of an Englishman 
with more judgment. Let him have another piece of it ; and, 
if he likes the sport, we’ll play a game of long bowls with him. 
Ah ! you have sent him to his guns. We shall now hear more 
of him. Wake him up, Tom, wake him up.” 

“ Ay, ay, sir ; all ready,” grumbled the cockswain ; “ stand 
by with your match— fire ! ” This was the actual commence- 
ment of the fight ; for, as the shot of Tom Coffin travelled, 
their enemy found the sport becoming too hot to be endured in 
silence, and the report of the second gun from the Ariel was 
instantly followed by that of the whole broadside of the 
Alacrity. The shot of the cutter flew in a very good direc- 
tion, but her guns were too light to give them efficiency at 
that distance, and as the two were heard to strike against the 
bends of the schooner and fall back innocuously into the water, 
the cockswain remarked with his customary apathy : 1 

“ Them count no more than love-taps ; does the English- 
man think that we are firing salutes ?” 

“ Stir him up, Tom ; every blow you give him will help to 
open his eyes,” cried Barnstable, rubbing his hands with glee. 
The action now grew warm and spirited on both sides. 

In the meantime the Englishman played a manful game. 
He had suffered a heavy loss by the distant cannonade, which 
no metal he possessed could retort upon his enemy ; but he 
struggled nobly to repair the error of judgment with which 
he had begun the contest. The two vessels gradually drew 
nigher to each other, until they both entered the common 
cloud created by their fire, which thickened and spread around 
them in such a manner as to conceal their dark hulls from 


1 want of feeling. 


LONG TOM AND HIS STRANGE WEAPON. 


93 


the gaze of the curious and interested spectators on the 
cliffs. 

The fire of the Ariel was much the most quick and deadly ; 
and the cutter stood desperately on to decide the combat, after 
grappling, hand to hand. Barnstable anticipated her inten- 
tion, and well understood her commander’s reason for adopt- 
ing this course. Accordingly he met the enemy half-way, and 
as the vessels rushed together, the stern of the schooner was 
secured to the bow of the cutter by the joint efforts of both 
parties. The voice of the English commander was now to be 
heard in the uproar calling his men to follow him. 

“ Away there, boarders ! Repel boarders on the starboard 
quarter,” shouted Barnstable through his trumpet. 

“ Sweep him from his decks,” cried the English com- 
mander, as he appeared on his own bulwarks surrounded by a 
dozen of his bravest men ; “ drive the rebellious dogs into the 
sea.” 

“ Away there, marines ! ” retorted Barnstable, firing his 
pistol at the advancing enemy ; “ leave not a man of them to 
sup his grog again.” 

“ Board her ! graybeards and boys, idlers, and all !” again 
shouted Barnstable, springing in advance of his crew. A 
powerful arm arrested the movement of the dauntless seaman, 
and before he had time to recover himself he was drawn 
violently back to his own vessel by the irresistible grasp of 
his cockswain. 

“ The fellow is in his flurry,” said Tom, “and it wouldn’t 
be wise to go within reach of his flukes ; but I’ll just step 
ahead and give him a set with my harpoon.” 

Without waiting for a reply, the cockswain reared his tall 
frame on the bulwarks, and was in the attitude of stepping on 
board of his enemy, when a sea separated the vessels, and he 
fell with a dash of the waters into the ocean. As twenty 
muskets and pistols were discharged at the instant he dis- 
appeared, the crew of the Ariel supposed his fall to be occa- 


94 


THE PILOT. 


sioned by his wounds, and were rendered doubly fierce by the 
sight, and the cry of their commander to — 

“ Revenge Long Tom ! board her ! Long Tom or death ! ” 
They threw themselves forward in irresistible numbers, 
and forced a passage, with much bloodshed, to the forecastle 
of the Alacrity. 

“ Hurrah ! ” shouted Barnstable from the edge of the 
quarter-deck, where, attended by a few men, he was driving 
all before him. “ Revenge ! Long Tom and victory ! ” 

“ We have them/'’ exclaimed the Englishman. “ Handle 
your pikes ; we have them between two fires.” 

The battle would probably have terminated differently from 
what previous circumstances had indicated, had not a wild- 
looking figure appeared in the cutter’s channels at that 
moment, issuing from the sea, and gaining the deck at the 
same instant. It was Long Tom, with his iron visage ren- 
dered fierce by his previous discomfiture, and his grizzled 
locks drenched, looking like Neptune with his trident . 1 With- 
out speaking, he poised his harpoon, and with a powerful 
effort pinned the unfortunate Englishman to the mast of 
his own vessel. 

“ Starn all ! ” cried Tom, by a sort of instinct, when the 
blow was struck ; and, catching up the musket of a fallen 
marine, he dealt out terrible and fatal blows with its butt 
on all who approached him, utterly disregarding the use of 
the bayonet on its muzzle. The unfortunate commander of 
the Alacrity brandished his sword with frantic gestures. His 
head dropped lifeless upon his gored breast, a spectacle of 
dismay to his crew. The Englishmen left to the Americans 
the undisputed possession of the Alacrity. 

While the vessels were separating, and the bodies of the 
dead and wounded were being removed, the conqueror paced 
the deck of his prize, as if lost in deep reflection. He passed 
his hand frequently across his blackened and blood-stained 

1 three-pronged spear. 


LONG TOM AND HIS STRANGE WEAPON. 


95 


brow, while his eyes would rise to examine the vast canopy of 
smoke that was hovering above the vessels, like a dense fog 
exhaling from the ocean. 

“Haul down all your flags," he cried; “set the English- 
man's colors again, and show the enemy's jack above our 
ensign in the Ariel” 

“I see how it is, sir; you reckon the redcoats have Mr. 
Griffith in tow," said the cockswain. 

The few prisoners who were unhurt were rapidly trans- 
ferred to the Ariel. While Barnstable was attending to this 
duty, an unusual bustle drew his eyes to one of the hatchways, 
where he beheld a couple of his marines dragging forward a 
gentleman whose demeanor and appearance indicated the 
most abject terror. 

After examining the extraordinary appearance of this 
individual for a moment, the lieutenant exclaimed : 

“ Whom have we here — some amateur in fights ? Pray, sir, 
in what capacity did you serve in this vessel ? " 

The captive ventured a sidelong glance at his interrogator, 
in whom he expected to encounter Griffith ; but, perceiving 
that it was a face he did not know, he felt a revival of con- 
fidence that enabled him to reply : 

“ I came by accident ; being on board of the cutter at the 
time her late commander determined to engage you. I am a 
non-combatant " 

“ This is perfectly true," interrupted Barnstable ; “it re- 
quires no spyglass to read the name written on you from 
stem to stern ; but for certain weighty reasons " 

He paused to turn at a signal given him by young Merry, 
who whispered in his ear : 

“ 'Tis Mr. Dillon, kinsman of Colonel Howard ; I've seen 
him often, sailing in the wake of my cousin Cicely." 

“ Dillon ! " exclaimed Barnstable, rubbing his hands with 
pleasure. “ What, Kit of that name ! he with ‘the Savannah 
face, eyes of black, and skin of the same color' ? He's grown 


96 


THE PILOT. 


a little whiter with fear ; but he’s a prize, at this moment, 
worth twenty Alacrities .” 

These exclamations were made in a low voice, and at some 
little distance from the prisoner, whom he now approached 
and addressed : 

“ Policy, and consequently duty, require that I should detain 
you for a short time, sir ; but you shall have a sailor’s welcome 
to whatever we possess, to lessen the weight of captivity.” 

Barnstable precluded any reply, by bowing to his captive 
and turning away to superintend the management of his ves- 
sels. In a short time it was announced that they were ready 
to make sail, when the Ariel and her prize were brought close 
to the wind, and commenced heating slowly along the land, as 
if intending to return to the bay whence the latter had sailed 
that morning. As they stretched in to the shore, the soldiers 
on the cliffs rent the air with their shouts, to which Barn- 
stable directed his crew to respond in the most cordial man- 
ner. As the distance, and the want of boats, prevented any 
further communication, the soldiers, after gazing at the re- 
ceding vessels for a time, disappeared from the cliffs. 

In the meantime, the navigators diligently pursued their 
way for the haven, into which they steered with every ap- 
pearance of the fearlessness of friends and the exultation 1 of 
conquerors. 


CHAPTER XIII. 

CAPTAIN MANUAL AND HIS MARINES. 

As Griffith and his companions rushed from the offices of 
St. Ruth into the open air, they encountered no one to inter- 
cept their flight or communicate the alarm. They proceeded 
for the distance of half a mile with rapid strides, and with the 
stern and sullen silence of men who expect danger, resolved to 
breast it with desperate resolution. 

i triumph. 


CAPTAIN MANUAL AND HIS MARINES. 


97 


“ I have reason to think that there is an unfrequented ruin 
at no great distance from us,” said Griffith ; “ perhaps we 
might find both shelter and privacy among its deserted walls.” 

“The thought is good,” returned the pilot, “and Twill 
answer a double purpose. Could you find the place where you 
put the marines in ambush, Captain Manual ?” 

“ Has a dog a nose ? and can he follow a clean scent ?” ex- 
claimed the marine ; “do you think, Signor Pilota, that a 
general ever puts his forces in an ambuscade where he can't 
find them himself ?” 

“ Come, come, Manual,” said Griffith, a little angrily, “can 
you lead your men hither without discovery, before the day 
dawns ? ” 

“I want but the shortest half-hour that a bad watch ever 
travelled over to do it in.” 

“ Then follow, and I wi\\ appoint a place of secret ren- 
dezvous,” rejoined Griffith; “Mr. Gray can learn our situa- 
tion at the same time.” 

The pilot was seen to beckon, through the gloom of the night, 
for his companions to move forward ; when they proceeded, 
with cautious steps, in quest of the desired shelter. A short 
search brought them in contact with a part of the ruined walls, 
which spread over a large surface, and which in places reared 
their black fragments against the sky, casting a deeper ob- 
scurity across the secret place in the recesses of the wood. 

“This will do,” said Griffith ; “bring up your men to this 
point, where I will meet you, and conduct them to some more 
secret place, for which I shall search during your absence.” 

“ A perfect paradise, after the cable- tiers of the A riel,” ex- 
claimed Manual ; “ I doubt not but a good spot might be 
selected among the trees for a steady drill.” 

“Away, away !” cried Griffith. “ Here is no place for idle 
parades ; if we find shelter from discovery and capture until 
you shall be needed in a deadly struggle, 'twill be well.” 

It was now about the commencement of the morning watch, 
7 


98 


THE PILOT. 


and Griffith ventured to the edge of the little wood to listen 
if any sounds or tumult indicated that they were pursued. 
The recollection of home, America, his youthful mistress, 
blended in a sort of wild and feverish confusion, which was 
not, however, without its pleasures, in the ardent fancy of the 
young man ; and he was slowly approaching, step by step, 
toward the abbey, when the sound of footsteps, proceeding 
evidently from the measured tread of disciplined men, reached 
his ears. He was instantly recalled to his recollection by this 
noise, which increased as the party approached ; and in a few 
moments he was able to distinguish a line of men marching in 
order toward the edge of the wood from which he had himself 
so recently issued. 

Retiring rapidly under the deeper shade of the trees, he 
waited until it was apparent the party intended to enter under 
its cover also, when he ventured to speak. 

“ Who comes, and on what errand ?” he cried. 

“ A skulker, and to burrow like a rabbit, or jump from hole 
to hole like a wharf rat !” said Manual, sulkily. “ Here have 
I been marching, within half musket-shot of the enemy, with- 
out daring to pull a trigger even on their outposts, because our 
muzzles are plugged with that universal extinguisher of gun- 
powder called prudence.” 

“Lead your party into the ruin, and let them seek their 
rest ; we may have work for them with the dawn,” said 
Griffith. 

Manual had the satisfaction of seeing his little party quar- 
tered in a military manner before he retired with Griffith and 
his men into one of the vaulted apartments of the ruin. 
Here the marines disposed themselves to rest, while the two 
officers succeeded in passing the tedious hours, without losing 
their characters for watchfulness, by conversing with each 
other. 

The guns first fired from the Alacrity had been distinctly 
audible, and were pronounced by Griffith as not proceeding 


CAPTAIN MANUAL AND HIS MARINES. 


99 


from the schooner. When the rapid though distant rumbling 
of the spirited cannonade became audible, it was with diffi- 
culty that Griffith could restrain either his own feelings or the 
conduct of his companions within the hounds that prudence 
and their situation required. The last gun was, however, 
fired, and not a man had left the vault, and conjectures as to 
the result of the fight succeeded to those which had been 
made on the character of the combatants during the action. 

Many hours had passed, when suddenly Griffith said : 

“ Hark ! What says he?" 

“Who goes there? What noise is that?" repeated the 
sentinel, who was placed at the entrance of the vault. 

Manual and Griffith sprang at the same instant from their 
places of rest, and stood, unwilling to create the slightest 
sounds, listening with the most intense anxiety to catch the 
next indications of the cause of their guardian's alarm. A 
short stillness* like that of death succeeded, during which 
Griffith whispered : 

“'Tis the pilot ; his hour has been long past." 

The words were hardly spoken when the clashing of steel 
was heard, and at the next instant the body of the sentinel 
fell heavily along the steps that led to the open air, and rolled 
lifelessly to their feet, with the bayonet that had caused his 
death projecting from a deep wound in his breast. 

“Away, away ! sleepers, away !" shouted Griffith. 

“ To arms ! " cried Manual, in a voice of thunder. 

The alarmed marines sprang to their feet in a confused 
cluster, and at that fatal moment a body of living fire darted 
into the vault, which reechoed with the report of twenty 
muskets. The uproar, the smoke, and the groans which 
escaped from many of his party could not restrain Griffith 
another instant. His pistol was fired through the cloud 
which concealed the entrance of the vault, and he followed 
the leaden messenger, trailing a half-pike, and shouting to 
his men : 


100 


THE PILOT. 


“ Come on ! Follow, my lads ! They are nothing but sol- 
diers.” 

Even while he spoke the ardent young seaman was rush- 
ing up the narrow passage ; but as he gained the open space 
his foot struck the writhing body of the victim of his shot, 
and he was precipitated headlong into a group of armed 
men. 

“Fire, Manual, fire!” shouted the infuriated prisoner; 
“fire while you have them in a cluster.” 

“Ay, fire, Mr. Manual,” said Borroughcliffe, with great 
coolness, “ and shoot your own officer. Hold him up, boys, 
hold him up in front. The safest place is nighest to him.” 

“Fire!” repeated Griffith, making desperate efforts to 
release himself from the grasp of five or six men ; “ fire and 
disregard me.” 

“If he do, he deserves to be hung,” said Borroughcliffe ; 
“ such fine fellows are not sufficiently plenty to be shot at like 
wild beasts in chains. Take him from before the mouth of 
the vault, boys, and spread yourselves for duty.” 

At the time Griffith issued from the cover, Manual was me- 
chanically employed in placing his men in order ; and the 
marines, accustomed to do everything in concert and array, 
lost the moment to advance. The soldiers of Borroughcliffe 
reloaded their muskets and fell back behind different portions 
of the wall, where they could command the entrance to the 
vault with their fire, without much exposure to themselves. 
This disposition was very coolly reconnoitred by Manual in 
person through some of the crevices in the wall, and he hesi- 
tated to advance against the force he beheld while so advan- 
tageously posted. In this situation several shots were fired by 
either party without effect, until Borroughcliffe, perceiving the 
inefficacy of that mode of attack, summoned the garrison of 
the vault to a parley. 

“ Surrender to the forces of his Majesty, King George the 
Third,” he cried, “and I promise you quarter.” 


CAPTAIN MANUAL AND HIS MARINES. 


101 


Griffith advanced between the two parties, and spoke so as 
to be heard by both : 

“ I propose to descend to the vault and ascertain the loss 
and present strength of Captain Manual’s party ; if the latter 
be not greater than I apprehend, I shall advise him to a sur- 
render on the usual conditions of civilized nations.” 

“ Go,” said the soldier. 

Griffith passed into the vault, giving notice to his friends, 
by his voice, in order to apprise them who approached. 

He found six of the marines, including the sentinel, lying 
dead on the ragged pavement ; and four others wounded, but 
stifling their groans, by order of their commander, that they 
might not inform the enemy of his weakness. With the 
remainder of his command Manual had intrenched himself 
behind a fragment of a wall that intersected the vault, and, 
regardless of the dismaying objects before him, maintained as 
bold a front and as momentous an air as if the fate of a walled 
town depended on his resolution and ingenuity. 

Griffith hastened to Borroughclifle with his intelligence 
that the party would surrender. 

“ Four such fiery gentlemen as yourself would have routed 
my command,” said Borroughcliffe. “1 trembled for my 
ranks when I saw you coming out of the smoke, like a blazing 
comet from behind a cloud, and I shall never think of somer- 
sets without returning inward thanks to their inventor. But 
our treaty is made ; let your comrades come forth and pile 
their arms.” 

Griffith communicated the result to the captain of marines, 
when the latter led the remnant of his party out of the sunken 
fortress into the open air. 

The bodies of the slain were left unsheltered, the seclusion 
of the ruin being deemed a sufficient security against the dan- 
ger of any discovery, until darkness should favor their re- 
moval in conformity with Borroughcliffe’s plan. The wounded 
were placed in rude litters composed of the muskets and 


102 


THE PILOT. 


blankets of the prisoners, when the conquerors and vanquished 
moved together in a compact body from the ruin, in such a 
manner as to make the former serve as a mask to conceal the 
latter from the curious gaze of any casual passer. There was 
but little, indeed, to apprehend on this head ; for the alarm 
and terror, consequent on the exaggerated reports that flew 
through the country, effectually prevented any intruders on 
the usually quiet and retired domains of St. Ruth. 

The party was emerging from the wood, when the crackling 
of branches and rustling of dried leaves announced, however, 
that an interruption of some sort was about to occur. 

“ Clear the way, CaBsar,” cried a voice at no great distance 
from them ; “ break through the accursed vines on my right, 
Pompey ; press forward, my fine fellow, or we may be too 
late to smell even the smoke of the fight.” 

A violent effort disentangled the advancing party from 
the thicket of brambles, when two blacks, each bending 
under a load of firearms, preceded Colonel Howard into the 
clear space where Captain Borroughcliffe had halted his de- 
tachment. 

“ We heard you fire,” cried the old soldier, making at the 
same time the most diligent application of his bandanna, 
“and I determined to aid you with a sortie.” 1 

“ I have them — all that survive the affair,” said the captain ; 
“at least, all that have put foot on English soil.” 

“Ay, and the king's cutter has brought in a schooner,” 
added Colonel Howard. “ Thus perish all rebellion forever- 
more. Where's Kit, my kinsman, Mr. Christopher Dillon ? 
I would ask him what the laws of the realm next prescribe to 
loyal subjects.” 

“ You will pardon me, gentlemen,” said Griffith, advancing 
toward them with an uncontrollable interest ; “ but I have 
unavoidably heard part of your discourse, and cannot think 
you will find it necessary to withhold the whole truth from a 

1 the issuing of a body of troops from a besieged place to attack the besiegers. 


CAPTAIN MANUAL AND HIS MARINES. 


103 


disarmed captive. Say you that a schooner has been captured 
this morning ? ” 

“It is assuredly true,” said Borroughcliffe, “but I forbore 
to tell you, because I thought your own misfortunes would be 
enough for one time. Mr. Griffith, this gentleman is Colonel 
Howard, to whose hospitality you will be indebted for some 
favors before we separate.” 

“ Griffith,” echoed the colonel, in quick reply, “ Griffith, 
what a sight my old eyes witness ! — the child of worthy, gal- 
lant, loyal Hugh Griffith a captive, and taken in arms against 
his prince ! Young man, what would thy honest father have 
said, had it pleased God that he had survived to witness 
this burning shame and lasting stigma on thy respectable 
name ? ” 

“ Had my father lived, he would now have been upholding 
the independence of his native land,” said the young man, 
proudly. 

“0 boy, boy!” cried the colonel, “how I could have 
loved and cherished thee, if the skill and knowledge obtained 
in the service of thy prince were now devoted to the mainte- 
nance of his unalienable rights ! I loved thy father, worthy 
Hugh, even as I loved my own brother Harry.” 

“ And his son should still be dear to you,” interrupted 
Griffith, taking the reluctant hand of the colonel into both 
his own. 

“Ah, Edward,” continued the softened veteran, “how 
many day-dreams have been destroyed by thy perversity ! 
This war, ay, this war, young man — is it not a project of 
unrighteous ambition, under the mask of sacred liberty and 
the popular cry of equality ?” 

“ You judge us harshly, Colonel Howard,” said Griffith. 

“I judge you!” interrupted the old soldier, who by this 
time thought the youth resembled any one rather than his 
friend Hugh ; “it is not my province to judge you at all ; if 
it were — but the time will come, the time will come.” 


104 


THE PILOT. 


“ Mr. Griffith, yonder man calls himself your comrade?” 
said the captain. 

The eyes of Colonel Howard and Griffith followed the direc- 
tion of his finger, and the latter instantly recognized the 
pilot apparently surveying the condition of his friends. 

“ That man,” said Griffith, in confusion, and hesitating to 
utter even the equivocal truth that suggested itself, “that 
man does not belong to our ship’s company.” 

“And yet he has been seen in your company,” returned 
the incredulous Borroughcliffe. “ He was the spokesman in 
last night’s examination. Colonel Howard, and doubtless com- 
mands the rear-guard of the rebels.” 

“ You say true,” cried the veteran. “ Pompey, Caesar, 
present, fire ! ” 

The blacks started at the sudden orders of their master, of 
whom they stood in the deepest awe ; and presenting their 
muskets they averted their faces, and shutting their eyes 
obeyed the bloody mandate. 

“ Charge ! ” shouted the colonel. 

“If your friend stand this charge,” said Borroughcliffe to 
Griffith, with unmoved composure, “his nerves are made of 
iron. Such a charge would break the Coldstreams , 1 with 
Pompey in the ranks.” 

“I trust in God,” cried Griffith, “ he will have forbearance 
enough to respect the weakness of Colonel Howard. He 
presents a pistol.” 

“ But he will not fire. The Romans deem it prudent to halt ; 
nay, they countermarch to the rear. Hollo ! Colonel Howard, 
my worthy host, fall back on your reenforcements. The wood 
is full of armed men ; they cannot escape us. I only wait for 
the horse to cut off the retreat.” 

The colonel reluctantly acquiesced , 2 and the three followed 
the soldier to the dwelling at a pace that was adapted to the 
infirmities of the master. 


1 a noted English regiment. 


a rested satisfied. 


WHAT CAME OF LONG TOM’S GOING ON SHORE. 105 


As the gentlemen disappeared from his view among the 
shrubbery of the grounds, the pilot replaced his weapon, and, 
turning with a saddened and thoughtful brow, slowly reentered 
the wood. 


CHAPTER XIY. 

WHAT CAME OF LONG TOM*S GOING ON SHORE. 

When the fogs of evening began to rise along the narrow 
basin, the young seaman thought it time to apply himself in 
earnest to his duty. The Alacrity, containing all his own crew 
together with the Ariel’s wounded, was gotten silently under 
way, and driving easily before the heavy air that swept from 
the land she drifted from the harbor until the open sea lay 
before her, when her sails were spread, and she continued to 
make the best of her way in quest of the frigate. Barnstable 
had watched this movement with breathless anxiety ; for on an 
eminence that completely commanded the waters to some 
distance, a small but rude battery had been erected for the 
purpose of protecting the harbor against the depredations and 
insults of the smaller vessels of the enemy, and a guard of 
sufficient force to manage the two heavy guns it contained 
was maintained in the work at all times. He was ignorant 
how far his stratagem 1 had been successful, and it was only 
when he heard the fluttering of the Alacrity’s canvas, as she 
opened to the breeze, that he felt that he was yet secure. 

“ Master Coffin, man your boat at once, sir, and arm your 
crew." 

The cockswain paused a moment before he proceeded to 
obey this unexpected order, and pointing toward the battery 
he inquired with infinite phlegm : 3 

“ For shore work, sir ? Shall we take cutlasses and pistols, 
or shall we want pikes ? " 

1 plan for deceiving an enemy. 


2 indifference. 


106 


THE PILOT. 


“ There may be soldiers in our way, with their bayonets,” 
said Barnstable, and then turned to Mr. Merry and confided 
to him that he had gathered from the longshoremen, who 
had come otf this evening to stare at the vessel which the, 
rebels had been able to build, that a party of seamen and 
marines had been captured in an old ruin near the Abbey of 
St. Ruth that very day. 

“'Tis Mr. Griffith !” exclaimed the boy. 

“ Ay ! the wit of your cousin Katherine was not necessary to 
discover that. Now, I have proposed to this gentleman with 
the Savannah face that he should go into the abbey and 
negotiate an exchange. I will give him for Griffith, and the 
crew of the Alacrity for Manual's command and the Tigers.” 

“ The Tigers ! ” cried the boy, with emotion; “have they 
got my Tigers too ? Would to God that Mr. Griffith had per- 
mitted me to land ! ” 

“ It was no boy's work they were about, and room was 
scarcer in their boat than live lumber. But this Mr. Dillon 
has accepted my proposition, and has pledged himself that 
Griffith shall return within an hour after he is permitted to 
enter the abbey. Will he redeem his honor from .the pledge ?” 

“ He may,” said Merry, musing a moment ; “ for I believe 
he thinks the presence of Mr. Griffith under the same roof 
with Miss Howard a thing to be prevented, if possible. He 
may be true in this instance, though he has a hollow look.” 

“ Now listen, sir,” said Barnstable. “ Watch that battery 
as closely as if you were at the masthead of your frigate on 
the lookout for an enemy ; the instant you see lights moving 
in it, cut, and run into the offing. You will find me some- 
where under the cliffs, and you will stand off and on, keeping 
the abbey in sight, until you fall in with us.” 

Merry gave an attentive ear to these and divers other solemn 
injunctions that he received from his commander, who, having 
sent the officer next to himself in authority in charge of the 
prize (the third in command being included in the list of 


WHAT CAME OF LONG TOM’S GOING ON SHORE. 107 


the wounded),, was compelled to intrust his beloved schooner 
to the vigilance of a lad whose years gave no promise of the 
experience and skill he actually possessed. 

When his admonitory instructions were ended, Barnstable 
stepped again to the opening in the cabin hood, and once 
more examined the countenance of his prisoner with a keen 
eye. Dillon had removed his hands from before his sallow 
features ; and, as if conscious of the scrutiny his looks would 
undergo, had concentrated the whole expression of his forbid- 
ding aspect in a settled gaze of hopeless submission to his fate. 
At least, so thought his captor, and the idea touched some of 
the finer feelings in the bosom of the generous man. Discard- 
ing instantly every suspicion of his prisoner’s honor, as alike 
unworthy of them both, Barnstable summoned him in a cheer- 
ful voice to the boat. There was a dashing of the features of 
Dillon at this call, which gave an indefinable expression to his 
countenance that again startled the sailor ; but it was so tran- 
sient, and could so easily he mistaken for a smile of pleasure 
at his promised liberation, that the doubts it engendered 
passed away almost as speedily as the equivocal expression 
itself. Barnstable was in the act of following his companion 
into the boat, when he felt himself detained by a slight hold 
of his arm. 

“ What would you have ? 99 he asked of the midshipman 
who had given the signal. 

“ Do not trust too much to that Dillon, sir,” returned the 
anxious boy, in a whisper ; “ if you had seen his face as I did, 
when the binnacle-light fell upon it, as he came up the cabin 
ladder, you would put no faith in him.” 

As Barnstable gave the last order, he fell back on his seat, 
and, drawing his boat-cloak around him, maintained a pro- 
found silence until they had passed the two small headlands 
that formed the mouth of the harbor. Occasionally Barn- 
stable would cast an inquiring glance at the little inlets that 
they passed, or would note, with a seaman's eye, the small 


108 


THE PILOT. 


portions of sandy beach that were scattered here and there 
along the rocky boundaries of the coast. One in particular, a 
deeper inlet than common, where a run of fresh water was 
heard gurgling as it met the tide, he pointed out to his cock- 
swain, by significant but silent gestures, as a place to be espe- 
cially noted. Tom, who understood the signal as intended for 
his own eye alone, made his observations on the spot with 
equal taciturnity . 1 Soon after this the boat was suddenly 
turned, and was in the act of dashing upon a spit of sand be- 
fore it, when Barnstable checked the movement by his voice : 

“ Hold water !” he said ; “’tis the sound of oars.” 

The seamen held their boat at rest, while a deep attention 
was given to the noise that had alarmed the ears of their 
commander. 

“ See, sir,” said the cockswain, pointing toward the eastern 
horizon ; “it is just rising into the streak of light to seaward 
of us ; now it settles in the trough — ah ! here you have it 
again ! ” 

“ ’Tis a man-of-war’s stroke it pulls,” cried Barnstable ; 
“ I saw the oar-blades as they fell, and — listen to the sounds ! 
Neither your fisherman nor your smuggler pulls such a regular 
oar.” 

Tom had bowed his head nearly to the water, in the act of 
listening, and now, raising himself, he spoke with confi- 
dence : 

“ That is the Tiger ; I know the stroke of her crew as well 
as I do my own. Mr. Merry has made them learn the new- 
fashioned jerk, as they dip their blades, and they feather with 
such a roll in their rowlocks ; I could swear to the stroke.” 

“Hand me the night-glass,” said the commander, im- 
patiently ; “I can catch them as they are lifted into the 
streak. You are right, by every star in our flag, Tom ; but 
there is only one man in her stern-sheets. By my good eye, I 
believe it is that accursed pilot, sneaking from the land, and 

1 habitual reserve in speaking. 


WHAT CAME OF LONG TOM’S GOING ON SHORE. 109 

leaving Griffith and Manual to die in English prisons ! To 
shore with you — beach her at once ! ” 

The order was no sooner given than it was obe} r ed, and in 
less than two minutes the impatient Barnstable, Dillon, and 
the cockswain were standing together on the sands. 

The impression he had received, that his friends were aban- 
doned to their fate by the pilot, urged the generous young 
seaman to hasten the departure of his prisoner, as he was fear- 
ful every moment might interpose some new obstacle to the 
success of his plans. 

“ Mr. Dillon,” he said, the instant they were landed, “ I 
shall send my cockswain with you to the abbey, and you will 
either return with him, in person, within two hours, or give 
Mr. Griffith and Captain Manual to his guidance. Proceed, 
sir ; you are conditionally free ; there is an easy opening by 
which to ascend the cliffs. ^ 

Dillon once more thanked his generous captor, and then 
proceeded to force his way up the rough eminence. 

“ Follow, and obey his instructions,” said Barnstable to his 
cockswain, aloud. 

Tom, long accustomed to implicit obedience, handled his 
harpoon, and was quietly following in the footsteps of his new 
leader, when he felt the hand of the lieutenant on his 
shoulder. 

“You saw where the brook emptied over the hillock of 
sand ? ” said Barnstable, in an undertone. 

Tom nodded assent. 

“You will find us there riding without the surf — Twill not 
do to trust too much to an enemy.” 

The cockswain made a gesture of great significance with his 
weapon, that was intended to indicate the danger their pris 
oner would incur should he prove false ; when, applying the 
wooden end of the harpoon to the rocks, he ascended the 
ravine at a rate that soon brought him to the side of his com- 
panion. 


110 


THE PILOT. 


Barnstable lingered on the sands for a few minutes, until 
the footsteps of Dillon and the cockswain were no longer 
audible, when he ordered his men to launch their boat once 
more into the surf. While the seamen pulled leisurely toward 
the place he had designated as the point where he would await 
the return of Tom, the lieutenant first began to entertain seri- 
ous apprehensions concerning the good faith of the prisoner. 

The mists appeared to be settling nearer the earth, and it 
would have been difficult for one less acquainted than Dillon 
with the surrounding localities to find the path which led to 
the dwelling of Colonel Howard. After some search, this 
desirable object was effected ; and the civilian led the way 
with rapid strides toward the abbey. 

Avoiding the principal entrance of the building, through 
the great gates which communicated with the court in front, 
Dillon followed the windings of the wall until it led them to a 
wicket which he knew was seldom closed for the night until 
the hour for general rest had arrived. Their way now lay 
in the rear of the principal edifice, and soon conducted them 
to the confused pile which contained the offices. The cock- 
swain followed his companion with a confiding reliance on 
his knowledge and good faith. 

He did not perceive anything extraordinary in the other’s 
stopping at the room which had been provided as a sort of bar- 
racks for the soldiers of Captain Borroughcliffe. A conference 
which took place between Dillon and the sergeant was soon 
ended, when the former beckoned to the cockswain to follow, 
and taking a circuit around the whole offices, they entered the 
abbey together by the door through which the ladies had issued 
when in quest of the three prisoners as has been already 
related. After a turn or two among the narrow passages of 
that part of the edifice, Tom found himself following his 
guide through a long, dark gallery, that was terminated at the 
end toward which they were approaching by a half-opened 
door that admitted a glimpse into a well-lighted and comfort- 


WHAT CAME OF LONG TOM’S GOING ON SHORE. Ill 


able apartment. The master of the mansion and Borrough- 
clitfe were seated opposite to each other, employed in discuss- 
ing the events of the day. 

The colonel, turning, beheld the individual he had so much 
desired, and received him with a delight proportioned to the 
unexpectedness of the pleasure. Borroughcliffe entirely dis- 
regarded the private communications that passed between 
his host and Dillon, which gradually became more deeply 
interesting, and finally drew them to a distant corner of the 
apartment. The captain was, however, at last summoned to 
participate in the councils of his friends. 

Dillon was spared the disagreeable duty of repeating the 
artful tale he had found it necessary to palm on the colonel by 
the ardor of the veteran himself, who executed the task in a 
manner that gave to the treachery of his kinsman every appear- 
ance of a justifiable artifice, and of unshaken zeal in the cause of 
his prince. In substance, Tom was to be detained as a pris- 
oner, and the party of Barnstable were to be entrapped, and of 
course to share a similar fate. 

“ Drill/' said Borroughcliffe, aloud, “ advance and receive 
your orders." The cockswain turned quickly at this sudden 
mandate, and for the first time perceived that he had been 
followed into the gallery by the orderly and two files of sol- 
diers, armed. 

“ Take this man to the guard-room and feed him, and see 
that he dies not of thirst." 

There was nothing alarming in this order, and Tom was 
following the soldiers in obedience to a gesture from their 
captain, when their steps were arrested in the gallery by the 
cry of “'Halt!” 

“ On recollection. Drill," said Borroughcliffe, in a voice 
from which dictatorial sounds were banished, “show the 
gentleman into my own room, and see him properly sup- 
plied." 

Luckily for the impatience of Tom, the quarters of the cap- 


112 


THE PILOT. 


tain were at hand, and the promised entertainment by no 
means slow in making its appearance. 

As Borroughclilfe entered the apartment, he commanded his 
orderly to retire, adding : 

“ Mr. Dillon will give yon instructions, which you are im- 
plicitly to obey.” 

The captain drew near the cockswain, and with a familiarity 
infinitely condescending, when the ditference in they* several 
conditions is considered, he commenced the following dialogue : 

“You are a most deserving fellow, and it is painful to 
think to what a fate the treachery of Mr. Dillon has consigned 
you.” 

The suspicions of Tom, if he ever entertained any, -were 
lulled to rest by the kindness he had received ; he, therefore, 
contented himself by saying, with a satisfied simplicity : 

“I am consigned to no one, carrying no cargo but this Mr. 
Dillon, who is to give me Mr. Griffith in exchange, or go back 
to the Ariel himself as my prisoner.” 

“ I am sorry to say you will not be permitted to return to 
the Ariel , and that your commander, Mr. Barnstable, will 
be a prisoner within an hour, and, in fact, that your 
schooner will be taken before the morning breaks.” 

“ AVhofil take her ? ” asked the cockswain, with a grim 
smile, on whose feelings, however, this combination of threat- 
ened calamities was beginning to make some impression. 

“ You must remember that she lies immediately under the 
heavy guns of a battery that can sink her in a few minutes ; 
an express has already been sent to acquaint the commander 
of the work with the Ariel’s true character ; and, as the wind 
has already begun to blow from the ocean, her escape is impos- 
sible.” 

The truth, together with its portentous consequences, now 
began to glare across the faculties of the cockswain. He re- 
membered the helpless situation of the schooner, deprived of 
more than half her crew and left to the keeping of a boy, 


WHAT CAME OF LONG TOM’S GOING ON SHORE. 113 


while her commander himself was on the eve of captivity. 
The trencher 1 fell from his lap to the floor, his head sunk on 
his knees, his face was concealed between his broad palms, 
and, in spite of every effort the old seaman could make to con- 
ceal his emotion, he fairly groaned aloud. 

For a moment the better feelings of Borroughcliffe prevailed, 
and he paused as he witnessed this exhibition of suffering in 
one whose head was already sprinkled with the marks of time. 

“ I know of one way,” said Borroughcliffe, affecting to 
muse, “and but one, that will certainly avert the prison-ship ; 
for, on second thoughts, they will hardly put you to death.” 

“ Name it, friend,” cried the cockswain, rising from his 
seat in evident perturbation , 2 “and if it lies in the power of 
man, it shall be done.” 

“ Why, then, you have only to serve your king as you have 
before served the Congress — and let me be the man to show 
you your colors.” * 

The cockswain stared at the speaker intently, but it was 
evident he did not clearly comprehend the nature of the prop- 
osition, and the captain pursued the subject : 

“ In plain English, enlist in my company, my fine fellow, 
and your life and liberty are both safe.” 

Tom did not laugh aloud, for that was a burst of feeling he 
was seldom known to indulge, but every feature of his weather- 
beaten visage contracted into an expression of bitter, ironical 
contempt. Borroughcliffe felt the iron fingers that grasped 
his collar gradually tightening about his throat like a vice ; 
and, as the arm slowly contracted, his body was drawn, by a 
power that it was in vain to resist, close to that of the cock- 
swain ; who, when their faces were within a foot of each other, 
gave vent to his emotions in words : 

“ A messmate before a shipmate, a shipmate before a stran- 
ger, a stranger before a dog — but a dog before a soldier ! ” 

As Tom concluded, his nervous arm was suddenly extended 

i large wooden plate, 8 restlessness or disquietude of mind. 

8 


114 


THE PILOT. 


to the utmost, the fingers relinquishing their grasp at the same 
time ; and, when Borroughcliffe recovered his disordered 
faculties, he found himself in a distant corner of the apart- 
ment, prostrate among a confused pile of chairs, tables, and 
wearing apparel. In endeavoring to rise from this humble 
posture, the hand of the captain fell on the hilt of his sword, 
which had been included in the confused assemblage of arti- 
cles produced by his overthrow. 

“ How now, scoundrel ! ” he cried, baring the glittering 
weapon, and springing on his feet; “you must be taught 
your distance, I perceive.” 

The cockswain seized the harpoon which leaned against the 
wall, and dropped its barbed extremity within a foot of the 
breast of his ^assailant, with an expression of the eye that de- 
noted the danger of a nearer approach. The captain, however, 
wanted not for courage, and, stung to the quick by the insult 
he had received, he made a desperate parry, and attempted to 
pass within the point of the novel weapon of his adversary. 
The slight shock was followed by a sweeping whirl of the har- 
poon, and Borroughcliffe found himself without arms, com- 
pletely at the mercy of his foe. One more struggle, in which 
the captain discovered his incompetency to make any defence 
against the strength of a man who managed him as if he had 
been a child, decided the matter. The cockswain produced 
sundry pieces of sennit and marline from his pockets, and 
proceeded to lash the arms of the conquered soldier to the 
posts of the bed. When this part of the plan was executed, 
Tom paused for a moment and gazed around him in quest of 
something. The naked sword caught his eye, and with the 
weapon in his hand he approached his captive. 

“ For Grod's sake,” exclaimed Borroughcliffe, “ murder me 
not in cold blood ! ” 

The silver hilt entered his mouth as the words issued from 
it, and the captain found that he was being “gagged.” 

The cockswain now appeared to think himself entitled to all 


WHAT CAME OF LONG TOM’S GOING ON SHORE. 115 

the privileges of a conqueror ; for, taking the light in his hand, 
he commenced a scrutiny into the nature and quality of the 
worldly effects that lay at his mercy. At length he found a 
pair of handsomely mounted pistols, a sort of weapon with 
which he seemed quite familiar. lie thrust the weapons into 
the canvas belt that encircled his body, and grasping his har- 
poon, approached the bed where Borroughcliffe was seated in 
duress . 1 

“ Harkye, friend,” said the cockswain, “ may the Lord for- 
give you, as I do, for wishing to make a soldier of a seafaring 
man, and one who has followed the waters since he was an hour 
old, and one who hopes to die off soundings, and to be buried 
in brine ! ” 

With these amicable wishes the cockswain departed. 

It is certain that Tom Coffin had devised no settled plan of 
operations when he issued from the apartment of Borrough- 
cliffe, if we except a most resolute determination to make the 
best of his way to the Ariel , and to share in her fate, let it be 
either sink or swim. 

Following the line of the wall he soon emerged from the 
dark and narrow passage in which he had first found himself, 
and entered the principal gallery, that communicated with all 
the lower apartments of that wing, as well as with the main 
body of the edifice. An open door, through which a strong light 
was glaring, at a distant end of the gallery, instantly caught his 
eye ; and the old seaman had not advanced many steps toward 
it before he discovered that he was approaching the very room 
which had so much excited his curiosity, and by the identical 
passage through which he had entered the abbey. The doubt- 
ing old seaman stood once more near the threshold which he 
had crossed when conducted to the room of Borroughcliffe. 
The seat of that gentleman was now occupied by Dillon, and 
Colonel Howard had resumed his wonted station at the foot 
of the table. 


» imprisonment. 


116 


THE PILOT. 


“ A nice ruse ! ” cried the veteran, as Tom assumed his post 
in ambush ; “a most noble and ingenious ruse ! ” 

It was extremely fortunate for Dillon that the animation of 
his aged kinsman kept his head and body in such constant mo- 
tion as to intercept the aim that the cockswain was deliber- 
ately taking at his head with one of Borroughcliffe's pistols. 

“ But you have not spoken of the ladies,” said Dillon, after 
a pause ; “ I should hope they have borne the alarm of the day 
like kinswomen of the family of Howard.” 

The colonel glanced his eyes around him as he answered : 

“ Ah, Kit, they have come to since this rebel scoundrel 
Griffith has been brought to the abbey ! We were favored with 
the company of even Miss Howard in the dining-room to-day. 
This Griffith goes to the Tower, at least, Mr. Dillon. 

“ We must be stirring, boy,” continued the colonel, moving 
toward the door that led to the apartments of his prisoners ; 
“ but there is a courtesy due to the ladies, as well as to those 
unfortunate violators of the laws. Go, Christopher, convey 
my kindest wishes to Cecilia.” 

The greater part of the preceding discourse was unintelli- 
gible to the cockswain, who had waited its termination with 
extraordinary patience, in hopes he might obtain some infor- 
mation that he could render of service to the captives. Before 
he had time to decide on what was now best for him to do, 
Dillon suddenly determined to venture himself in the cloisters ; 
he passed the hesitating cockswain, who was concealed by the 
opening door, so closely as to brush his person, and moved 
down the gallery with rapid strides. Tom hesitated no longer, 
but, aiding the impulse given to the door by Dillon as he 
passed, so as to darken the passage, he followed the sounds of 
the other's footsteps while he trod noiselessly across the stone 
pavement of the gallery. 

The light tap of Dillon on the door of the withdrawing-room 
ol the cloisters was answered by the soft voice of Cecilia How- 
ard herself, who bade the applicant enter. 


WHAT CAME OF LONG TOM’S GOING ON SHOEE. 117 


“ I come by the commands of yonr uncle/'’ said Dillon, “ and 
permit me to add, by my own ” 

“ May Heaven shield us ! ” exclaimed Cecilia, clasping her 
hands in affright, and rising involuntarily from her couch. 
“ Are we too to be imprisoned and murdered ? ” 

“ Surely Miss Howard will not impute to me — ” Dillon 
paused, observing that the wild looks, not only of Cecilia, but 
of Katherine and Alice Dunscombe also, were directed at some 
object ; and turning, to his manifest terror he beheld the 
gigantic frame of the cockswain, surmounted by an iron visage 
fixed in settled hostility, in possession of the only passage from 
the apartment. 

“ If there’s murder to be done/’ said Tom, after surveying 
the astonished group with a stern eye, “ it’s as likely this here 
liar will be the one to do it, as another. Hone who knows 
him will say that Thomas Coffin ever used uncivil language or 
unseamanlike conduct to any of his mother’s kind.” 

“ Coffin,” exclaimed Katherine, advancing with a more con- 
fident air from the corner into which terror had driven her 
with her companions. 

“ Ay, Coffin,” continued the old sailor, his grim features 
gradually relaxing as he gazed on her bright looks. 

“ Coffin ! This, then, is Long Tom ? ” 

“Ay, ay, Long Tom, and no sham in the name either,” 
returned the cockswain. 

Bending his eye keenly on the cowering form of Dillon, he 
said : 

“ Liar ! how now ? What brought old Tom Coffin into these 
shoals and narrow channels ? Was it a letter ? Ha ! but by 
the Lord that maketh the winds to blow, and teacheth the lost 
mariner how to steer over the wide w r aters, you shall sleep this 
night, villain, on the planks of the Ariel” 

The extraordinary vehemence, the language, the attitude of 
the old seaman, commanding in its energy, and the honest in- 
dignation that shone in every look of his keen eyes, together 


118 


THE PILOT. 


with the nature of the address, and its paralyzing effect on 
Dillon, who quailed before it like the stricken deer, united to 
keep the female listeners, for many moments, silent through 
amazement. 

During this brief period, Tom advanced upon his nerveless 
victim, and, lashing his arms together behind his back, he 
fastened him by a strong cord to the broad canvas belt that he 
constantly wore around his body, leaving to himself by this 
arrangement the free use of his arms and weapons of offence, 
while he secured his captive. 

“ Surely,” said Cecilia, recovering her recollection the first 
of the astonished group, “ Mr. Barnstable has not commis- 
sioned you to offer this violence to my uncle^s kinsman, under 
the roof of Colonel Howard ? ” 

The cockswain, understanding that an explanation was ex- 
pected from his lips, addressed himself to the task with an 
energy suitable both to the subject and to his own feelings. 
In a very few words, though a little obscured by his peculiar 
diction, he made his listeners understand the confidence that 
Barnstable had reposed in Dillon, and the treachery of the 
latter. 

“ But why delay ? Away, then, honest Tom, and reveal 
the treachery to your commander. You may yet be in time — 
why delay a moment ? ” asked Cecilia. 

“The ship tarries for want of a pilot. I could carry three 
fathom over the shoals of Nantucket the darkest night that 
ever shut the windows of heaven, but I should be likely to run 
upon breakers in this navigation. As it was, I was near getting 
into company that I should have had to fight my way out of.” 

“If that be all, follow me,” cried the ardent Katherine ; “ I 
will conduct you to a path that leads to the ocean, without 
approaching the sentinels.” 

“Away!” said Tom, grasping the collar of the helpless 
Dillon, and rather carrying than leading him into the gallery ; 
“if a sound one-quarter as loud as a young porpoise makes 


WHAT CAME OF LONG TOM’S GOING ON SHORE. 119 


when he draws his first breath comes from you, villain, you 
shall see the sight of the Alacrity over again. My harpoon 
keeps its edge well, and the old arm can yet drive it to the 
seizing.” 

This menace effectually silenced even the hard breathings of 
the captive, who, with his conductor, followed the light steps 
of Katherine through some of the secret mazes of the building, 
until in a few minutes they issued through a small door into 
the open air. 

Tom needed no incentive to his speed, now that the course 
lay so plainly before him ; but loosening his pistols in his belt, 
and poising his harpoon, he crossed the fields at a gait that 
compelled his companion to exert his utmost powers, in the 
way of walking, to equal. 

They reached the edge of the cliffs without encountering the 
party that had been sent in quest of Barnstable, at a point near 
where they had landed. In a few minutes they gained the 
ravine, down which Tom plunged with a seaman's nerve, 
dragging his prisoner after him, and directly they stood where 
the waves rose to their feet, as they flowed far and foaming 
across the sands. 

The cockswain stooped so low as to bring the crests of the 
billows in a line with the horizon, when he discovered the dark 
boat playing in the outer edge of the surf. 

“ What, hoa ! Ariels there ! ” shouted Tom. 

“ Who hails ?” cried the well-known voice of Barnstable. 

“ Once your master, now your servant,” answered the cock- 
swain, with a watchword of his own invention. 

“'Tis he,” returned the lieutenant. “Veer away, boys, 
veer away. You must wade into the surf.” 

Tom caught Dillon in his arms, and throwing him, like a 
cork, across his shoulder, he dashed into the streak of foam 
that was bearing the boat on its crest, and before his com- 
panion had time for remonstrance or entreaty he found him- 
self once more by the side of Barnstable. 


120 


THE PILOT. 


“ Whom have we here ?” asked the lieutenant. “This is 
not Griffith.” 

“ Haul out and weigh your grapnel,” said the excited Tom ; 
“and then, boys, if you love the Ariel , pull while the life and 
the will is left in you.” 

Barnstable knew his man, and not another question was 
asked until the boat was without the breakers. Then, in a few 
but bitter sentences, the cockswain explained to his commander 
the treachery of Dillon and the danger of the schooner. 

“ The soldiers are slow at a night muster,” concluded Tom, 
“and from what I overheard, the express will have to make a 
crooked course to double the head of the bay ; so that, but for 
this northeaster, we might weather upon them yet. But it's a 
matter that lies altogether in the will of Providence. Pull, 
my hearties, pull ! Everything depends on your oars to-night.” 

Barnstable listened in deep silence to this unexpected narra- 
tion, which sounded in the ears of Dillon like his funeral knell. 
At length the suppressed voice of the lieutenant was heard 
also, uttering : 

“ Wretch ! if I should cast you into the sea as food for the 
fishes, who could blame me ? But if my schooner goes to 
the bottom, she shall prove your coffin.” 


CHAPTER XV. 

CAST ASHORE OH THE EHEMY^S COAST. 

The arms of Dillon were released from their confinement by 
the cockswain, as a measure of humane caution against acci- 
dents, when they entered the surf, and the captive now availed 
himself of the circumstance to bury his features in the folds of 
his attire. 

The shadows of the hills seemed to have accumulated, like 
a mass of gloom, in the centre of the basin ; and, though every 


CAST ASHORE ON THE ENEMY’S COAST. 


121 


eye involuntarily turned to search, it was in vain that the 
anxious seamen endeavored to discover their little vessel 
through its density. While the boat glided into this quiet 
scene, Barnstable anxiously observed : 

“Everything is as still as death.” 

“God send it is not the stillness of death !” ejaculated the 
cockswain. “Here, here,” he continued, speaking in a lower 
tone, as if fearful of being overheard, “ here she lies, sir, 
more to port. Look into the streak of clear sky above the 
marsh on the starboard hand of the wood, there. That long 
black line is her main-topmast ; I know it by the rake ; and 
there is her night pennant fluttering above that bright star. 
Ay, ay, sir, there go our own stars aloft yet, dancing among 
the stars in the heavens ! God bless her ! God bless her ! 
she rides as easy and as quiet as a gull asleep ! ” 

“ I believe all in her sleep, too,” returned his commander. 
“ Ha ! we have arrived in good time : the soldiers are moving.” 

The whole hull and taper spars of their floating home 
became unexpectedly visible; and the sky, the placid basin, 
and the adjacent hills were illuminated by a flash as sudden 
and as vivid as the keenest lightning. 

“ A bad aim with the first gun generally leaves your enemy 
clean decks,” said the cockswain, with his deliberate sort of 
philosophy ; “ smoke makes but dim spectacles ; besides, the 
night always grows darkest as you call off the morning watch.” 

“ That boy is a miracle for his years,” rejoined the delighted 
lieutenant. “ See, Tom, the younker has shifted his berth in 
the dark, and the Englishmen have fired by the day range 
they must have taken, for we left him in a direct line between 
the battery and yon hummock. What would have become of 
us if that heavy fellow had plunged upon our decks and 
gone out below the water-line ? ” 

“We should have sunk into English mud for eternity, as 
sure as our metal and kentledge would have taken us down,” 
responded Tom. 


122 


THE PILOT. 


So long as the seamen were enabled to keep their little bark 
under the cover of the hill, they were, of course, safe ; but 
Barnstable perceived, as they emerged from its shadow and 
were drawing nigh the passage which led into the ocean, that 
the action of his sweeps would no longer avail them against 
the currents of air they encountered, neither would the dark- 
ness conceal their movements from his enemy, who had already 
employed men on the shore to discern the position of the 
schooner. Throwing off at once, therefore, all appearance 
of disguise, he gave forth the word to spread the canvas of his 
vessel, as soon as he reached its decks. 

“ Let them do their worst now, Merry,” he added ; “ we 
have brought them to a distance that I think will keep their 
iron above water, and we have no dodge about us, younker.” 

The sails had been loosened and set ; and as the vessel 
approached the throat of the passage, the gale, which was 
blowing with increased violence, began to make a very sensible 
impression on the light bark. 

While the lieutenant was yet talking, the whistling of a 
passing shot was instantly succeeded by a crash of splintered 
wood ; and at the next moment the head of the mainmast, after 
tottering for an instant in the gale, fell toward the deck, 
bringing with it the mainsail, and the long line of topmast, 
that had been bearing the emblems of America, as the cock- 
swain had expressed it, among the stars of the heavens. 

“That was a most unlucky hit,” Barnstable suffered to 
escape him, in the concern of the moment ; but instantly 
he gave his orders to clear the wreck, and secure the fluttering 
canvas. 

The loss of all the sail on the mainmast forced the Ariel 
so much from her course, as to render it difficult to weather 
the point that jutted under her lee for some distance into the 
ocean. This desirable object was, however, effected by the 
skill of Barnstable, aided by the excellent properties of his 
vessel ; and the schooner, borne down by the power of the 


CAST ASHORE ON THE ENEMY’S COAST. 


123 


gale, from whose fury she now had no protection, passed 
heavily along the land, heading as far as possible from the 
breakers, while the seamen were engaged in making their 
preparations to display as much of their mainsail as the stump 
of the mast would allow them to spread. 

The firing from the battery ceased as the Ariel rounded the 
promontory, and little was to be dreaded from that quarter ; 
but Barnstable soon perceived that he had a much more 
threatening danger to encounter in the elements. 

The Ariel continued to struggle against the winds and ocean 
for several hours longer, before the day broke on the tempestu- 
ous scene, and the anxious mariners were enabled to form 
a more accurate estimate of their real danger. Barnstable 
watched the appearance of the weather, as the light slowly 
opened upon them, with an intense anxiety. On looking to 
windward, the green masses of water that were rolling in 
toward the land, with a violence that seemed irresistible, were 
crowned with ridges of foam ; and there were moments when 
the air appeared filled with sparkling gems, as the rays of the 
rising sun fell upon the spray that was swept from wave to 
wave. Toward the land the view was still more appalling. 

The cliffs, but a short half-league under the lee of the 
schooner, were at all times nearly hid from the eye by the 
pyramids of water which the furious element, so suddenly 
restrained in its violence, cast high into the air, as if seeking 
to overleap the boundaries that nature had fixed to its domin- 
ion. The whole coast, from the distant headland at the south 
to the well-known shoals that stretched far beyond their course 
in the opposite direction, displayed a broad belt of foam, into 
which it would have been certain destruction, for the proudest 
ship that ever swam, to enter. 

The low rumor of acknowledged danger had found its way 
through the schooner ; and the seamen, after fastening their 
hopeless looks on the small spot of canvas that they were still 
able to show to the tempest, would turn to view the dreary line 


124 


THE PILOT. 


of coast that seemed to offer so gloomy an alternative. Even 
Dillon, to whom the report of their danger had found its way, 
crept from his place of concealment in the cabin, and moved 
about the decks, unheeded, devouring with greedy ears such 
opinions as fell from the sullen mariners. 

“ She can make no head against this sea, under that rag of 
canvas,” said Barnstable, gloomily, addressing the cockswain. 

Tom sighed heavily, and shook his head, before he answered : 

“ If we could have kept the head of the mainmast an hour 
longer, we might have got an offing, and fetched to windward 
of the shoals ; but as it is, sir, mortal man can’t drive a craft to 
windward — she sets bodily in to land, and will be in the breakers 
in less than an hour, unless God wills that the wind shall cease 
to blow.” 

The anchors and kedge were dropped to the bottom, and the 
instant that the Ariel tended to the wind, the axe was applied 
to the little that was left of her long, raking masts. 

It was now felt by the whole crew of the Ariel that their 
last means of safety had been adopted. While the minds of the 
sailors were agitated with the faint hopes that had been ex- 
cited by the movements of their schooner, Dillon had been 
permitted to wander about the deck unnoticed : his rolling 
eyes, hard breathing, and clinched hands excited no observa- 
tion among the men, whose thoughts were yet dwelling on the 
means of safety. But now, when with a sort of frenzied 
desperation he would follow the retiring waters along the 
decks, and venture his person nigh the group that had col- 
lected around and on the gun of the cockswain, glances of 
fierce or sullen vengeance were cast at him, that conveyed 
threats of a nature that he was too much agitated to under- 
stand. 

“ If ye are tired of this world, though your time, like my 
own, is probably short in it,” said Tom to him, as he passed 
the cockswain in one of his turns, “ you can go forward among 
the men ; but if ye have need of the moments to foot up the 


CAST ASHORE ON THE ENEMY’S COAST. 


125 


reckonin’ of your doings among men afore ye’re brought to 
face your Maker and hear the log-book of heaven, I would 
advise you to keep as nigh as possible to Captain Barnstable 
or myself.” 

“Will you promise to save me if the vessel is wrecked ?” 
exclaimed Dillon, catching at the first sounds of friendly inter- 
est that had reached his ears since his recapture. “ Oh, if you 
will, I can secure your future ease, yes, wealth, for the remain- 
der of your days ! ” 

“ Your promises have been too ill kept afore this for the 
peace of your soul,” returned the cockswain, without bitter- 
ness, though sternly; “but it is not in me to strike even a 
whale that is already spouting blood.” 

The intercessions of Dillon were interrupted by a dreadful 
cry that arose among the men forward, and which sounded 
with increased horror amid the roarings of the tempest. The 
schooner rose on the breast of a wave at the same instant, 
and, falling off with her broadside to the sea, she drove in 
toward the cliffs like a bubble on the rapids of a cataract. 

“ Our ground-tackle has parted,” said Tom, with his re- 
signed patience of manner undisturbed; “she shall die as 
easy as man can make her.” While he yet spoke he seized 
the tiller, and gave to the vessel such a direction as would be 
most likely to cause her to strike the rocks with her bows 
foremost. 

There was for a moment an expression of exquisite anguish 
betrayed in the dark countenance of Barnstable, but at the 
next it passed away, and he spoke cheerfully to his men : 

“ Be steady, my lads, be calm ; there is yet a hope of life 
for you ; our light draught will let us run in close to the 
cliffs, and it is still falling water ; see your boats clear, and be 
steady.” 

The crew of the whale-boat, aroused by this speech from a 
sort of stupor, sprang into their light vessel, which was quickly 
lowered into the sea, and kept riding on the foam, free from 


126 


THE PILOT. 


the sides of the schooner, by the powerful exertions of the 
men. The cry for the cockswain was earnest and repeated ; 
hut Tom shook his head without replying, still grasping the 
tiller, and keeping his eyes steadily bent on the chaos of 
waters into which they were driving. A passing billow had 
thrown the vessel into a position which in some measure pro- 
tected the decks from the violence of those that succeeded it. 

“ Go, my boys, go,” said Barnstable. “ God bless you, God 
bless you all ! You have been faithful and honest fellows, and 
I believe He will not yet desert you. Go, my friends, while 
there is a lull.” 

Barnstable, while he was speaking, caught up Merry and 
tossed him into the arms of the seamen, saying : 

“ Away with ye, and God be with you ; there is more weight 
in you now than can go safe to land.” 

Still the seamen hesitated, for they perceived the cockswain 
moving with a steady tread along the deck, and they hoped he 
had relented and would yet persuade the lieutenant to join his 
crew. Efut Tom, imitating the example of his commander, 
seized the latter suddenly in his powerful grasp and threw him 
over the bulwarks with an irresistible force. At the same 
moment he cast the fast of the boat from the pin that held it, 
and, lifting his broad hands high in the air, his voice was 
heard in the tempest : 

“ God's will be done with me ! ” he cried. “1 saw the first 
timber of the Ariel laid, and shall live just long enough to 
see it torn out of her bottom ; after which I wish to live no 
longer.” 

The cockswain, who still remained where he had cast off 
the rope, gave a cry of joy as he saw Barnstable issue from the 
surf bearing the form of Merry in safety to the sands, where, 
one by one, several seamen soon appeared also, dripping and 
exhausted. 

Dillon and the cockswain were now the sole occupants of 
their dreadful station. The former stood in a kind of stupid 


CAST ASHORE ON THE ENEMY’S COAST. 


127 


despair, a witness of the scene we have related ; but, as his 
curdled blood began to flow more freely through his heart, he 
crept close to the side of Tom, with that sort of selfish feeling 
that makes even hopeless misery more tolerable when endured 
in participation with another. 

“ When the tide falls,” he said, in a voice that betrayed the 
agony of fear, though his words expressed the renewal of hope, 
“ we shall be able to walk to land.” 

“ There was One, and only One, to whose feet the waters 
were the same as a dry deck,” returned the cockswain, “ and 
none but such as have His power will ever be able to walk from 
these rocks to the sands.” 

The heavy groaning produced by the water in the timbers 
of the Ariel at that moment added its impulse to the ragiug 
feelings of Dillon, and he cast himself headlong into the 
sea. 

The water thrown by the rolling of the surf on the beach 
was necessarily returned to the ocean in eddies, in different 
places favorable to such an action of the element. Into the 
edge of one of these counter-currents that was produced by 
the very rocks on which the schooner lay, and which the 
watermen call the “ undertow,” Dillon had unknowingly 
thrown himself ; and when the waves had driven him a short 
distance from the wreck he was met by a stream that his most 
desperate efforts could not overcome. 

The cockswain shouted aloud, in a voice that was driven 
over the struggling victim to the ears of his shipmates on the 
sands : 

“ Sheer to port, and clear the undertow ; sheer to the 
southward ! ” 

Dillon heard the sounds, but his faculties were too much 
obscured by terror to distinguish their object ; he, however, 
blindly yielded to the call, and gradually changed his direction 
until his face was once more turned toward the vessel. At 
this moment Tom's eyes met those of the desperate Dillon, 


128 


THE PILOT. 


Calm and inured to horrors as was the veteran seaman, he 
involuntarily passed his hand before his brow to exclude the 
look of despair he encountered ; and when, a moment after- 
ward, he removed the rigid member, he beheld the sinking 
form of the victim as it gradually settled in the ocean, still 
struggling, with regular but impotent strokes of the arms and 
feet, to gain the wreck, and to preserve an existence that had 
been so much abused in its hour of allotted probation. 

“ He will soon know his God, and learn that his God 
knows him ! ” murmured the cockswain to himself. As he 
yet spoke, the wreck of the Ariel yielded to an overwhelming 
sea, and, after a universal shudder, her timbers and planks 
gave way and were swept toward the cliffs, bearing the body 
of the simple-hearted cockswain among the ruins. 

Several bodies had been rescued from the wild fury of the 
waves ; and one by one, as the melancholy conviction that life 
had ceased was forced on the survivors, they had been de- 
cently interred in graves dug on the very margin of that ele- 
ment on which they had passed their lives. But still the form 
longest known and most beloved was missing ; and the lieuten- 
ant paced the broad space that was now left between the foot 
of the cliffs and the raging ocean, with hurried strides and 
feverish eye, watching and following those fragments of the 
wreck that the sea still continued to cast on the beach. Liv- 
ing and dead, he now found that of those who had lately been 
in the Ariel only two were missing. 

“ God knows, sir,” said Merry, hastily dashing a tear from 
his eye by a stolen movement of his hand, “ I loved Tom 
Coffin better than any foremast man in either vessel. We all 
loved him, Mr. Barnstable ; but love cannot bring the dead 
to life again.” 

“ I know it, I know it,” said Barnstable, with a huskiness 
in his voice that betrayed the depth of his emotion. “ Think, 
boy, he may at this moment be looking at us, and praying to 
his Maker that he would turn our eyes upon him ; ay, praying 


CAST ASHORE ON THE ENEMY’S COAST. 


129 


to his God, for Tom often prayed, though he did it in his 
watch, standing and in silence. ” 

“ If he had clung to life so strongly/’ returned the midship- 
man, “ he would have struggled harder to preserve it.” 

Every effort to discover the lost cockswain was, after two 
hours’ more search, abandoned as fruitless ; and with reason, 
for the sea was never known to give up the body of the man 
who might be emphatically called its own dead. 

“ The men have gathered many articles on yon beach, sir/’ 
said the lad ; “ they have found arms to defend ourselves 
with, and food to give us strength to use them.” 

“ And who shall be our enemy ? ” asked Barnstable, bit- 
terly ; “ shall we shoulder our dozen pikes, and carry Eng- 
land by boarding ?” 

“ We may not lay the whole island under contribution,” 
continued the boy, anxiously watching the expression of his 
commander’s eye ; “ but we may still keep ourselves in work 
until the cutter returns from the frigate. I hope, sir, you 
do not think our case so desperate as to intend yielding as 
prisoners.” 

“Prisoners!” exclaimed the lieutenant; “no, no, lad, it 
has not got to that, yet. England has been able to wreck my 
craft, I must concede ; but she has, as yet, obtained no other 
advantage over us. She was a precious model, Merry ; the 
cleanest run and the neatest entrance that art ever united on 
the stem and stern of the same vessel. We have been 
unlucky, sir, but we need not despair. These lads have gotten 
together abundance of supplies, I see ; and, with our arms, we 
can easily make ourselves masters of some of the enemy’s 
smaller craft, and find our way back to the frigate when the 
gale has blown itself out. We must keep ourselves close, 
though, or we shall have the redcoats coming down upon us 
like so many sharks around a wreck. Ah, God bless her, 
Merry ! There is not such a sight to be' seen on the whole 
beach as two of her planks holding together.” 

9 


130 


THE PILOT. 


Barnstable joined his shipwrecked companions with the 
air of authority which is seldom wanting between the superior 
and the inferior in nautical intercourse, but at the same time 
with a kindness of speech and looks that might have been 
increased by their critical situation. After partaking of the 
food which had been selected from among the fragments that 
still lay scattered for more than a mile along the beach, the 
lieutenant directed the seamen to arm themselves with such 
weapons as offered, and also to take sufficient provision from 
the schooner’s stores to last them twenty-four hours longer. 
These orders were soon executed, and the whole party, led by 
Barnstable and Merry, proceeded along the foot of the cliffs in 
quest of the opening in the rocks through which the little 
rivulet found a passage to the ocean. Barnstable paused in 
his march when they had all entered the deep ravine, and 
ascended nearly to the brow of the precipice that formed one 
of its sides, to take a last and more scrutinizing survey of the 
sea. His countenance exhibited the abandonment of all hope, 
as his eye moved slowly from the northern to the southern 
boundary of the horizon, and he prepared to pursue his 
march by moving reluctantly up the stream, when the boy, 
who clung to his side, exclaimed joyously : 

“ Sail ho ! It must be the frigate in the offing.” 

“A sail ! 39 repeated his commander ; “ where away do you 
see a sail in this tempest ? Can there be another as hardy 
and unfortunate as ourselves ? ” 

“ Look to the starboard hand of the point of rock to wind- 
ward !” cried the boy. “ Now you lose it — ah, now the sun 
falls upon it ! ’Tis a sail, sir, as sure as canvas can be spread 
in such a gale ! ” 

“ I see what you mean,” returned the other, “but it seems 
a gull skimming the sea. Nay, nowit rises, indeed, and shows 
itself like a bellying topsail. Pass up the glass, lads ; here is 
a fellow in the offing who may prove a friend.” 

Merry waited the result of the lieutenant’s examination 


CAST ASHORE ON THE ENEMY’S COAST. 


131 


with youthful impatience, aud did not fail to ask imme- 
diately : 

“ Can you make it out, sir ? Is it the ship or the cutter ?” 

“ Come, there seemeth yet some hope left for us, boy,” 
returned Barnstable, closing the glass; “*tis a ship lying-to 
under her main-topsail. If one might dare to show himself 
on these heights, he would raise her hull, and make sure of 
her character. But I think I know her spars, though even 
her topsail dips at times, when there is nothing to he seen 
but her bare poles, and they are shortened by the topgallant 
masts.” . 

“ We must have patience till morning,” said the boy, “ for 
no boat would attempt to land in such a sea.” 

The two officers now descended from their elevation and 
led the way still farther up the deep and narrow dell, until, as 
the ground rose gradually before them, they found themselves 
in a dense wood on a level with the adjacent country. 

“Here should be a ruin at hand, if I have a true reckoning, 
and know my courses and distances,” said Barnstable ; “ I 
have a chart about me that speaks of such a landmark. But, 
younker, look ahead ; can you see any habitation that has 
been deserted ? ” 

“Ay, sir, here is a pile of stones before us, that looks as 
dirty and ragged as if it was a soldiers* barrack ; can this be 
what you seek ? ” 

“ Faith, this has been a whole town in its day. We should 
call it a city in America, and furnish it with a mayor, aider- 
men, and recorder ; you might stow old Faneuil Hall 1 in one 
of its lockers.” 

A short time was passed in examining the premises, when 
the wearied seamen took possession of one of the dilapidated 
apartments, and disposed themselves to seek that rest of which 
they had been deprived by the momentous occurrences of the 
past night. 

1 in Boston, noted meeting-place of American patriots. 


132 


THE PILOT. 


Barnstable waited until the loud breathing of the seamen 
assured him that they slept, when he aroused the drowsy boy, 
who was fast losing his senses in the same sort of oblivion, and 
motioned him to follow. Merry arose, and they stole together / 
from the apartment with guarded steps, and penetrated more 
deeply into the gloomy recesses of the place. 


CHAPTER XVI. 

THE PILOT’S OPPORTUNE ARRIVAL. 

We must leave the two adventurers winding their way among 
the broken piles, and venturing boldly beneath the tottering 
arches of the ruin, to accompany the reader, at the same hour, 
within the more comfortable walls of the abbey, where, it will 
be remembered, Borroughcliffe was left in a condition of very 
equivocal ease. 

No one ignorant of the fact would suppose that the gentle- 
man who was now seated at the hospitable board of Colonel 
Howard, directing, with so much discretion, the energies of 
his masticators to the delicacies of the feast, was the captain 
who had been so recently condemned for four long hours to the 
mortification of discussing the barren subject of his own 
sword-hilt. In the young man who sat by his side, dressed 
in the deep-blue jacket of a seaman, and whose easy air and 
manner contrasted still more strongly with his attire, the 
reader will discover Griffith. The captive paid much less 
devotion to the viands than his neighbor. The laughing eyes 
of Katherine Plowden were glittering by the side of the mild 
countenance of Alice Dunscombe, and at times were fastened 
in droll interest on the rigid and upright exterior that Captain 
Manual maintained, directly opposite to where she was seated. 
A chair had also been placed for Dillon — of course it was 
vacant. 


THE PILOT S OPPORTUNE ARRIVAL. 


138 


“ Here comes one who should turn our thoughts to an im- 
portant subject — our dress,” said Cecilia. 

Katherine, springing from her chair with childish eager- 
ness, flew to the side of her cousin, who was directing a ser- 
vant that had announced the arrival of one of those erratic 
venders of small articles, who supply in remote districts of 
the country the places of more regular traders, to show the 
lad into the dining-parlor. The repast was so far ended as 
to render this interruption less objectionable ; the boy was 
ushered into the room without further delay. The contents 
of his small basket, consisting chiefly of essences and the 
smaller articles of female economy, were playfully displayed 
on the table by Katherine, who declared herself the patroness 
of the itinerant youth, and who laughingly appealed to the 
liberality of the gentlemen in behalf of her protege . 1 

“ Come, aid me, child ; what have you to recommend in 
particular to the favor of these ladies ?” asked Katherine. 

The lad approached the basket and rummaged its contents 
for a moment, with the appearance of deep, mercenary inter- 
est ; and then, without lifting his hand from the confusion he 
had caused, he said, while he exhibited something within the 
basket to the view of his smiling observer : 

“ This, my lady.” 

Katherine started, and glanced her eyes with a piercing look 
at the countenance of the boy, and then turned them uneasily 
from face to face with conscious timidity. She, in her stolen 
glances, met the keen look of Borroughcliffe fastened on her face 
in a manner that did not fail instantly to suspend the scrutiny. 

“ Come hither, boy,” said Captain Borroughcliffe, “ and 
explain the uses of your wares. This is soap, and this a pen- 
knife, I know ; but what name do you affix to this ? ” 

“ That ? That is tape,” returned the lad, with an impa- 
tience that might very naturally be attributed to the interrup- 
tion that was thus given to his trade. 

1 one under the care of another. 


134 


THE PILOT. 


“ And this ? ” 

“ That ! ” repeated the stripling, pausing, with a hesitation 

between sulkiness and doubt ; “that ■” 

“ Come, this is a little ungallant,” cried Katherine, “ to 
keep three ladies dying with impatience to possess themselves 
of their finery, while you detain the boy to ask the name of a 
tambouring needle.” 

“ I should apologize for asking questions that are so easily 
answered ; but perhaps he will find the next more difficult to 
solve,” returned Borroughcliffe, placing the subject of his 
inquiries in the palm of his hand in such a manner as to con- 
ceal it from all but the boy and himself. “ This has a name, 
too ; what is it ? ” 

“ That — that — is sometimes called — white-line.” 

“ Perhaps you mean a white lie ? ” 

“ How, sir ?” exclaimed the lad, a little fiercely ; “a lie ! ” 

“ Only a white' one,” returned the captain. “ What do you 
call this, Miss Dunscombe ? ” 

“We call it a bobbin, sir, generally in the North,” said the 
placid Alice. 

“ Ay, bobbin or white-line, they are the same thing,” added 
the young trader. 

“They are ? I think, now, for a professional man you know 
but little of the terms of your art,” observed Borroughcliffe, 
with an affectation of irony. “ I never have seen a youth of 
your years who knew less. What names, now, would you affix 
to this, and this, and this ?” 

While the captain was speaking he drew from his pocket the 
several instruments that the cockswain had made use of 
the preceding night to secure his prisoner. 

“That,” exclaimed the lad, with the eagerness of one who 
would vindicate his reputation, “is ratline-stuff, and this is 
marline, and that is sennit.” 

“ Enough, enough,” said Borroughcliffe ; “ you have ex- 
hibited sufficient knowledge to convince me that you do know 


THE PILOT’S OPPORTUNE ARRIVAL. 


135 


something of your trade , and nothing of these articles. Mr. 
Griffith, do you claim this boy ? ” 

“I believe I must, sir,” said the young officer, who had 
been intently listening to the examination. “ On whatever 
errand you have now ventured here, Mr. Merry, it is useless to 
affect further concealment.” 

“ Is this treason, Mr. Griffith, or what means the extraor- 
dinary visit of this young gentleman ? ” cried the colonel. 

“J.8 it extraordinary, sir,” said Merry himself, losing his 
assumed awkwardness in the ease and confidence of one whose 
faculties had been early exercised, “ that a boy like myself, 
destitute of mother and sisters, should take a risk on him- 
self to visit the only two female relatives he has in the 
world ? ” 

“ This is plausible enough. Captain Borroughcliffe, and I 
doubt not the boy speaks with candor. I would now that my 
kinsman, Mr. Christopher Dillon, were here, that I might 
learn if it would be misprision of treason to permit this youth 
to depart unmolested and without exchange. How say you ? 
Do you know anything of my kinsman ? ” 

The anxious eyes of the whole party were fastened on the 
boy for many moments, witnessing the sudden change from 
careless freedom to deep horror expressed in his countenance. 
At length he uttered, in an undertone, the secret of Dillon's 
fate. 

“ He is dead.” 

“ Dead ! ” repeated every one in the room. 

“Yes, dead,” said the boy, gazing at the pallid faces of 
those who surrounded him. 

“He has been murdered,” exclaimed Colonel Howard, whose 
command of utterance was now restored to him. “He has 
been treacherously and dastardly and basely murdered.” 

“He has not been murdered,” said the boy, firmly; “nor 
did he meet his death among those who deserve the name 
either of traitors or of dastards.” 


136 


THE PILOT. 


The veteran had now so far mastered his feelings as to con- 
tinue the dialogue. 

“ Mr. Griffith," he said, “ I shall not act hastily ; you and 
your companions will he pleased to retire to your several 
apartments." 

The prisoners bowed low to the ladies and their host, and 
retired. Griffith, however, lingered a moment on the thresh- 
old to say : 

“ Colonel Howard, I leave the boy to your kindness and 
consideration. I know you will not forget that his blood 
mingles with that of one who is most dear to you." 

“ Enough, enough, sir," said the veteran, waving his hand 
to him to retire. “ And you, ladies, this is not the place for 
you, either." 

Cecilia and Katherine permitted themselves to be conducted 
to the door by their polite but determined guardian, where he 
bowed to their retiring persons with the exceeding courtesy 
that he never failed to use when in the least excited. 

“Your honor," said Sergeant Drill, who had entered the 
room unobserved, “ here is a boy who says he has been seized 
in the old ruin and robbed of his goods and clothes, and by his 
description this lad should be the thief." 

Borroughclilfe signed to the boy to advance, and he was 
instantly obeyed. The tale of this unexpected intruder was 
soon told, and was briefly this : 

He had been assaulted by a man and boy (the latter was in 
presence) while arranging his effects in the ruins, and had 
been robbed of such part of his attire as the boy had found 
necessary for his disguise, together with his basket of valuables. 
He had been put into an apartment of an old tower by the 
man, for safe-keeping ; but as the latter frequently ascended 
to its turret, to survey the country, he had availed himself of 
this remissness to escape. 

Merry heard his loud and angry details with scornful com- 
posure, and before the offended pedler was through his narra- 


THE PILOT'S OPPORTUNE ARRIVAL. 


137 


tive had divested himself of the borrowed garments, which 
he threw to the other with singular disdain. 

“Hark ye, Drill,” cried Borroughcliffe, when the other 
had ended ; “ they have old soldiers to deal with, and we shall 
look into this matter. One would wish to triumph on foot ; 
you understand me ? — there was no horse in the battle. Go, 
fellow, take this young gentleman — and remember he is a 
gentleman — put him in safe-keeping, but see him supplied 
with all he wants.” 

Borroughclitfe bowed politely to the haughty bend of the 
body with which Merry, who now began to think himself a 
martyr to his country, followed the orderly from the room. 

“There is mettle in the lad,” exclaimed the captain. “I 
saw, by his eye, that he had squinted oftener over a gun than 
through a needle.” 

“ But they have murdered my kinsman — the loyal, the 
learned, the ingenious Mr. Christopher Dillon ! ” 

“ If they have done so, they shall be made to answer it,” 
said Borroughclitfe ; “ but let us learn the facts before we do 
aught hastily.” 

Colonel Howard was fain to comply with so reasonable a 
proposition, and he resumed his chair, while his companion 
proceeded to institute a close examination of the pedler boy. 

Cecilia and Katherine separated from Alice Dunscombe in 
the lower gallery of the cloisters, and the cousins ascended to 
the apartment assigned them as a dressing-room. Secluded 
from the observation of any strange eyes, the two maidens 
indulged their feelings, without restraint, according to their 
several temperaments. 

Katherine moved about in the apartment with feverish 
anxiety, while Miss Howard, by concealing her countenance 
under the ringlets of her luxuriant dark hair, and shading her 
eyes with a fair hand, seemed to be willing to commune with 
her thoughts more quietly. 

“ Barnstable cannot be far distant,” said Katherine, after a 


138 


THE PILOT. 


few minutes had passed ; “for he never would have sent that 
child on such an errand by himself.” 

She was making her first turn across the room, when her 
eyes became keenly set on the opposite window, and her whole 
frame was held in an attitude of absorbed attention. The 
rays of the setting sun fell bright upon her dark glances, 
which seemed fastened on some distant object, and gave an 
additional glow to the mantling color that was slowly stealing 
across her cheeks to her temples. Katherine slowly beckoned 
her companion to her side, and, pointing in the direction of 
the wood that lay in view, she said : 

“ See yon tower in the ruin ! Do you observe those small 
spots of pink and yellow that are fluttering above the walls ?” 

“ I do. They are the lingering remnants of the foliage of 
some tree ; hut they want the vivid tints which grace the 
autumn of our own dear America.” 

“ One is the work of God, and the other has been produced 
by the art of man. Cecilia, those are no leaves ; but they are 
my own childish signals, and without doubt Barnstable himself 
is on that ruined tower. Merry cannot, will not, betray him ! ” 

“ My life should be the pledge for the honor of our little 
cousin,” said Cecilia. “But you have the telescope of my 
uncle at hand, ready for such an event ; one look through it 
will ascertain the truth ” 

Katherine sprang to the spot where the instrument stood, 
and with eager hands she prepared it for the necessary obser- 
vation. 

“It is he ! ” she cried, the instant her eye was put to the 
glass. “ I even see his head above the stones. How unthink- 
ing to expose himself so unnecessarily ! ” 

“ But what says he, Katherine ? ” said Cecilia ; “ you alone 
can interpret his meaning.” 

The little book which contained the explanations of Miss 
Plowden’s signals was now hastily produced, and its leaves 
rapidly run over in quest of the necessary number. 


THE PILOT'S OPPORTUNE ARRIVAL. 


139 


“ Tis only a question to gain my attention. I must let him 
know he is observed. Here is a signal which will answer : 
‘ When the abbey clock strikes nine , come with care to the 
wicket, which opens, at the east side of the paddock, on the 
road ; until then, keep secret / I had prepared this very sig- 
nal in case an interview should be necessary.” 

“TV ell, he sees it,” returned Cecilia, who was now by the 
telescope, “ and seems disposed to obey you, for I no longer 
discern his flags or his person.” 

Miss Howard now arose from before the glass, her observa- 
tions being ended ; but Katherine did not return the instru- 
ment to its corner without fastening one long and anxious 
look through it on what now appeared to be the deserted 
tower. The interest and anxiety produced by this short and 
imperfect communication between Miss Plowden and her lover 
did not fail to excite reflections in both the ladies, that fur- 
nished materials to hold them in earnest discourse until the 
entrance of Alice Dunscombe announced that their presence 
was expected below. As no reference to the subject of their 
conversation was, however, made by either of the young ladies 
after the entrance of Alice, she led the way in silence to the 
drawing-room. 

The ladies were received by Colonel Howard and Borrough- 
cliffe with marked attention. It was in vain that Katherine 
endeavored to read the captain’s countenance, though his de- 
portment ajopeared more than usually easy and natural. Tired 
at length with her fruitless scrutiny, the excited girl turned 
her gaze upon the clock ; to her amazement she discovered 
that it was on the stroke of nine, and, disregarding a depre- 
cating glance from her cousin, she arose and quitted the apart- 
ment. She hesitated more than a minute to proceed, for she 
thought she had detected in a glance from the captain a lurk- 
ing expression that manifested conscious security mingled with 
secret design. 

It was not her nature, however, to hesitate when circum- 


140 


THE PILOT. 


stances required that she should be both prompt and alert, 
and throwing over her slight person a large cloak, she stole 
warily from the building. 

As she approached the wicket, the clock struck the hour. 
As the last vibration melted away, she opened the little gate 
and issued on the highway. The figure of a man sprang for- 
ward from behind an angle of the wall as she appeared, and, 
while her heart was still throbbing with the suddenness of the 
alarm, she found herself in the arms of Barnstable. After the 
first few words of recognition and pleasure which the young 
sailor uttered, he acquainted his mistress with the loss of his 
schooner and the situation of the survivors. 

Barnstable felt the little hand that was supported on his 
arm, pressing the limb. “ Merry has brought in a horrid 
report,” Katherine said. “ I would I could believe it untrue, 
but the looks of the boy and the absence of Dillon both con- 
firm it.” 

“ Is it to the fate of that wretched Dillon that you allude ?” 

“ He was a wretch,” continued Katherine, in the same voice, 
“ and he deserved much punishment at your hands, Barn- 
stable ; but life is the gift of God, and is not to be taken when- 
ever human vengeance would appear to require a victim.” 

“His life was taken by Him who bestowed it,” said the 
sailor. “ Is it Katherine Plowden who would suspect me of 
the deed of a dastard ? ” 

“ I do not suspect you — I did not suspect you,” cried Kath- 
erine ; “I will never suspect any evil of you again. You are 
not — you cannot be angry with me, Barnstable ? Had you 
heard the cruel suspicions of my cousin Cecilia, and had your 
imagination been busy in portraying your wrongs and the 
temptations to forget mercy, like mine, even while my tongue 
denied your agency in the suspected deed, you would — you 
would at least have learned how much easier it is to defend 
those we love against the open attacks of others than against 
our own jealous feelings.” 


THE PILOT’S OPPORTUNE ARRIVAL. 


141 


“ Those words, love and jealousy, will obtain your acquit- 
tal,” cried Barnstable, in his natural voice ; and after uttering 
a few more consoling assurances to Katherine, whose excited 
feelings found vent in tears, he briefly related the manner of 
Dillon's death. 

He then proceeded to lay before his mistress a project he 
had formed for surprising the abbey that night, which was so 
feasible that Katherine, notwithstanding her recent suspicions 
of Borroughcliffe's designs, came gradually to believe it would 
succeed. 

As the disclosure of these plans was frequently interrupted 
by little digressions connected with the peculiar emotions of 
the lovers, more than an hour flew by before they separated. 
But Katherine at length reminded him how swiftly the time 
was passing and how much remained to be done, when he 
reluctantly consented to see her once more through the wicket, 
where they parted. 

Miss Plowden adopted the same precaution in returning to 
the house she had used on leaving it, and she was congratu- 
lating herself on its success when her eye caught a glimpse of 
the figure of a man who was apparently following at some dis- 
tance in her footsteps and dogging her motions. As the 
obscure form, however, paused also when she stopped to give 
it an alarmed though inquiring look, and then slowly retired 
toward the boundary of the paddock, Katherine, believing it 
to be Barnstable watching over her safety, entered the abbey 
with every idea of alarm entirely lost in the pleasing reflection 
of her lover's solicitude. 

The sharp sounds of the supper-bell were ringing along the 
gallery as Miss Plowden gained the gloomy passage, and she 
quickened her steps to join the ladies in order that no further 
suspicions might he excited by her absence. 

The first few minutes were passed in the usual attentions of 
the gentlemen to the ladies and the ordinary civilities of the 
table. The meal passed by and the cloth was removed, though 


142 


THE PILOT. 


the ladies appeared willing to retain their places longer than 
was customary. 

“ What sound is that ?” shouted the colonel, with startling 
suddenness. “ Was it not the crash of some violence, Captain 
Borroughcliffe ? ” 

“ It may have been one of my rascals who has met with a 
downfall in passing from the festive board — where you know 
I regale them to-night, in honor of our success — to his 
blanket,” returned the captain, with admirable indifference. 

The soldier had now risen, casting aside the air of badinage 1 
which he so much delighted in, and came forward into the 
centre of the apartment with the manner of one who felt it 
was time to be serious. 

“A soldier is ever in peril when the enemies of his king 
are at hand,” he said ; “ and that such is now the case. Miss 
Plowden can testify, if she will. But you are the allies of 
both parties — retire, then, to your own apartments, and await 
the result of the struggle which is at hand.” 

“You speak of danger and hidden perils,” said Alice Duns- 
combe ; “know ye aught that justifies your fears ?” 

“ I know all,” Borroughcliffe coolly replied. 

“All !” exclaimed Katherine. 

“ All ! ” echoed Alice, in tones of horror. “ If, then, you 
know all, you must know the desperate courage and powerful 
hand when opposed. Yield in quiet, and he will not harm ye. 
Believe me, believe one who knows his very nature, that no 
lamb can be more gentle than he would be with unresisting 
women ; nor any lion more fierce with his enemies ! ” 

A loud crash interrupted further speech, and the sounds of 
heavy footsteps were heard in the adjoining room, as if many 
men were alighting on its floor in quick succession. Bor- 
roughcliffe drew back with great coolness to the opposite side 
of the apartment, and took a sheathed sword from the table 
where it had been placed ; at the same moment the door 


1 light discourse. 


THE PILOT’S OPPORTUNE ARRIVAL. 


143 


was burst open, and Barnstable entered alone, but heavily 
armed. 

“ You are my prisoners, gentlemen,” said the sailor, as he 
advanced ; “ resistance is useless, and without it you shall 
receive favor. Ha, Miss Plowden ! my advice was, that you 
should not be present at this scene.” 

“ Barnstable, we are betrayed ! ” cried the agitated Kath- 
erine. 

“ Go you away ; go, Katherine,” said her lover, with impa- 
tience; “this is no place for you. But, Captain Borrough- 
cliffe, if such be your name, you must perceive that resistance 
is in vain. I have ten good pikes in this outer room, in 
twenty better hands, and it will be madness to fight against 
such odds.” 

“Show me your strength,” said the captain, “that I may 
take counsel with mine honor.” 

“ Your honor shall be appeased, my brave soldier, for such 
is your bearing, though your livery is my aversion, and your 
cause most unholy. Heave ahead, boys ! but hold your hands 
for orders.” 

The party of fierce-looking sailors whom Barnstable led, on 
receiving this order, rushed into the room in a medley ; but 
notwithstanding the surly glances and savage characters of 
their dress and equipments, they struck no blow nor commit- 
ted any act of hostility. The confusion of this sudden move- 
ment had not yet subsided, when sounds of strife were heard 
rapidly approaching from a distant part of the building, and 
presently one of the numerous doors of the apartment was 
violently opened, when two of the garrison of the abbey rushed 
into the hall, vigorously pressed by twice their number of sea- 
men, seconded by Griffith, Manual, and Merry, who were 
armed with such weapons of offence as had presented them- 
selves to their hands at their unexpected liberation. 

“You see, sir,” said Barnstable, after grasping the hands 
of Griffith and Manual in a warm and cordial pressure, “ that 


144 


THE PILOT. 


all my plans have succeeded. Your sleeping guard are closely 
watched in their barracks by one party ; our officers are re- 
leased and your sentinels are cut off by another ; while 
with a third I hold the centre of the abbey, and am substan- 
tially in possession of your own person. In consideration, 
therefore, of what is due to humanity, and to the presence of 
these ladies, let there be no struggle. I shall impose no diffi- 
cult terms, nor any long imprisonment.” 

Borroughcliffe noted the hardened boldness of the seamen, 
and taking the supper-bell, which was lying on the table near 
him, he rang it for a minute with great violence. The heavy 
tread of trained footsteps soon followed this extraordinary 
summons ; and presently the several doors of the apartment 
were opened and filled with armed soldiers wearing the livery 
of the British Crown. 

st If you hold these smaller weapons in such contempt,” 
said the recruiting officer, when he perceived that his men 
had possessed themselves of all the avenues, “it is in my 
power to try the virtue of some more formidable. After this 
exhibition of my strength, gentlemen, I presume you cannot 
hesitate to submit as prisoners of war.” 

The seamen had been formed in something like military 
array by the assiduity 1 of Manual during the preceding dia- 
logue; and as the different doors had discovered fresh accessions 
to the strength of the enemy, the marine industriously offered 
new fronts, until the small party was completely arranged in 
a hollow square, that might have proved formidable in a 
charge, bristled as it was with the deadly pikes of the Ariel . 

“ Here has been some mistake,” said Griffith, after glancing 
his eye at the formidable array of the soldiers ; “ I take preced- 
ence of Mr. Barnstable, and I shall propose to you, Captain 
Borroughcliffe, terms that may remove this scene of strife from 
the dwelling of Colonel Howard.” 

“ The dwelling of Colonel Howard,” cried the veteran, “ is 

i diligence. 


THE PILOT’S OPPORTUNE ARRIVAL. 


145 


the dwelling of the king, or of the meanest servant of the 
Crown ! So, Borroughcliffe, spare not the traitors on my 
behalf ; accept no other terms than such unconditional sub- 
mission as is meet to exact from rebellious subjects of the 
anointed of the Lord.” 

“ Captain Borroughcliffe,” cried Griffith, “ to you I address 
myself. We have but to speak, sir, and these rude men, who 
already stand impatiently handling their instruments of death, 
will aim them at each other's lives ; and who can say that he 
shall be able to stay their hands when and where he will ? I 
know you to be a soldier, and that you are not yet to learn 
how much easier it is to stimulate to blood than to glut ven- 
geance. I would take, in peace, these armed men from before 
the eyes of those unused to such sights. Before you oppose 
this demand, think how easily these hardy fellows could make 
a way for themselves against your divided force.” 

“Your companion, the experienced Captain Manual, will 
tell you that such a manoeuvre would be unmilitary with a 
superior body in your rear.” 

“ I have not leisure, sir, for this folly,” cried the indignant 
Griffith. “ Do you refuse us an unmolested retreat from the 
abbey?” 

“I do.” 

Griffith turned with a look of extreme emotion to the ladies, 
and beckoned them to retire, unable to give utterance to his 
wishes in words. After a moment of deep silence, however, 
he once more addressed Borroughcliffe in tones of conciliation : 

“If Manual and myself will return to our prisons, and 
submit to the will of your government,” he said, “can the 
rest of the party return to the frigate unmolested ? ” 

“They cannot,” replied the soldier, who, perceiving that 
the crisis approached, was gradually losing his artificial deport- 
ment in the interest of the moment. “ You and all who will- 
ingly invade the peace of these realms must abide the issue,” 

“Then God protect the innocent and defend the right,” 

10 


146 


THE PILOT. 


“ Amen." 

“Give way, villains," cried Griffith, facing the party that 
held the outer door ; “ give way, or you shall be riddled with 
our pikes." 

“ Show them your muzzles, men," shouted Borroughcliffe ; 
“ but pull no trigger till they advance." 

There was an instant of bustle and preparation, in which 
the rattling of firearms blended with the suppressed execra- 
tions and threats of the intended combatants, and Cecilia and 
Katherine had both covered their faces to veil the horrid 
sight that was momentarily expected, when Alice Dunscombe 
advanced boldly between the points of the threatening weapons, 
and spoke in a voice that stayed the hands that were already 
uplifted : 

“ Hear me, men — if men ye be, and not demons thirsting 
for each other's blood. Call ye this war ? Is this the glory 
that is made to warm the hearts of even silly and confiding 
women ? Fall back, then, ye British soldiers, if ye he worthy 
of the name, and give passage to a woman, and remember that 
the first shot that is fired will be buried in her bosom." 

The men, thus enjoined, shrank before her commanding 
mien, and a way was made for her exit through the very door 
which Griffith had in vain solicited might be cleared for him- 
self and party. 

But Alice, instead of advancing, appeared to have suddenly 
lost the use of those faculties which had already effected so 
much. Her figure seemed rooted to the spot where she had 
spoken, and her eyes were fixed in a settled gaze as if dwelling 
on some horrid object. While she yet stood in this attitude 
of unconscious helplessness, the doorway became darkened, and 
the figure of the pilot was seen on its threshold, clad as usual 
in the humble vestments of his profession, but heavily armed 
with the weapons of naval war. For an instant he stood a 
silent spectator of the scene, and then advanced calmly, but 
with searching eyes, into the centre of the apartment. 


THE PILOT’S PARTING FROM ALICE DUNSCOMBE. 147 


CHAPTER XVII. 

THE PILOT'S ARRIVAL, AND HIS PARTING PROM ALICE 
DUNSCOMBE. 

“ Down with your arms, you Englishmen ! " said the dar- 
ing intruder ; “ and you who fight in the cause of sacred lib- 
erty, stay your hands, that no unnecessary blood may flow ! 
Yield yourself, proud Briton, to the power of the thirteen 
republics ! " 

“ Ha !" exclaimed Borroughcliffe, grasping a pistol with an 
air of great resolution, “the work thickens; I had not in- 
cluded this man in my estimate of their numbers. Is he a 
Samson, that his single arm can change the face of things so 
suddenly ? Down with your own weapon, you masquerader, 
or at the report of this pistol your body shall be made a tar- 
get for twenty bullets ! " 

“ And thine for a hundred !" returned the pilot. “ With- 
out there, wind your call, fellow, and bring in our numbers. 
We will let this confident gentleman feel his weakness." 

He had not done speaking before the shrill whistle of a 
boatswain rose gradually on the ears of the listeners, and pen- 
etrated even the most distant recesses of the abbey. A tre- 
mendous rush of men followed, who drove in before them the 
terrified fragment of Borroughcliffe's command that had held 
the vestibule, and the outer room became filled with a dark 
mass of human bodies. 

“ Let them hear ye, lads," cried their leader ; “ the abbey 
is your own." 

The roaring of a tempest was not louder than the shout that 
burst from his followers, who continued their cheers, peal on 
peal, until the very roof of the edifice appeared to tremble 
with their vibrations. 

Thus far Colonel Howard had yielded to his guest, with a 


148 


THE PILOT. 


deep reverence for the principles of military subordination, 
the functions of a commander ; hut, now that affairs appeared 
to change so materially, he took on himself the right to ques- 
tion these intruders into his dwelling. 

“By what authority, sir,” the colonel demanded, “is it 
that you dare thus to invade the castle of a subject of this 
realm ? ” 

“ I might answer you. Colonel Howard,” said Griffith, “ by 
saying that it is according to the laws of arms, or rather in 
retaliation for the thousand evils that your English troops 
have inflicted between Maine and Georgia ; but I wish not to 
increase the unpleasant character of this scene, and I therefore 
will tell you that our advantage shall be used with modera- 
tion. The instant that our men can be collected and our 
prisoners properly secured, your dwelling shall be restored to 
your authority. We are no freebooters, sir, and you will find 
it so after our departure. Captain Manual, draw off your 
guard into the grounds, and make your dispositions for a re- 
turn march to our boats. Let the hoarders fall back, there ! 
Out with ye ! out with ye ! Tumble out, you boarders ! ” 

“ It is due to me,” said the pilot, who now stepped forward 
among the group, “and at this time I enforce my authority. 
It is true that we came not here as marauders, and that our 
wish is to do no unnecessary acts of severity to the aged and 
helpless. This officer of the Crown, and this truant American 
in particular, are fairly our prisoners ; as such, they must be 
conducted on board our ship.” 

“ But the main object of our expedition ? ” said Griffith. 

“”Tis lost,” returned the pilot, hastily; “Tis sacrificed to 
more private feelings. *Tis like a hundred others, ended in 
disappointment, and is forgotten, sir, forever. But the inter- 
ests of the republics must not be neglected, Mr. Griffith ; 
this Colonel Howard will answer well in a bargain with the 
minions of the Crown, and may purchase the freedom of some 
worthy patriot who is deserving of his liberty.” 


THE PILOT’S PARTING FROM ALICE DUNSCOMBE. 149 


“ Then/’ said Cecilia Howard, timidly approaching the spot 
where her uncle stood, a disdainful witness of the dissensions 
among his captors, “ then I will go with him. He shall never 
be a resident among his enemies alone. ” 

“It would be more ingenuous and more worthy of my 
brother’s daughter,’" said her uncle, coldly, “if she ascribed 
her willingness to depart to its proper motive.” The old man 
walked toward Borroughclitfe, who was gnawing the hilt of 
his sword in very vexation at the downfall of his high-raised 
hopes, and placing himself by his side, with an air of infinitely 
dignified submission, he continued : “ Act your pleasure on 
us, gentlemen ; you are the conquerors, and we must even 
submit.” 

The colonel steadily and coldly rejected the advances of his 
niece, who bowed meekly to his will, and relinquished, for the 
present, the hope of bringing him to a sense of his injustice. 
She, however, employed herself in earnest to give such direc- 
tions as were necessary to enforce the resolution she had 
avowed, and in this unexpected employment she found both a 
ready and a willing assistant in her cousin. 

The pilot, as if satisfied with what he had already done, sank 
back to his reclining attitude against the wall, though his eyes 
keenly watched every movement of the preparations in a man- 
ner which denoted that his was the master spirit that directed 
the whole. Griffith had, however, resumed, in appearance, 
the command, and the busy seamen addressed themselves for 
orders to him alone. In this manner an hour was consumed, 
when Cecilia and Katherine appearing in succession, attired in a 
suitable manner for their departure, and the baggage of the 
whole party having been already intrusted to a petty officer 
and a party of his own men, Griffith gave forth the customary 
order to put the whole in motion. 

The shrill, piercing whistle of the boatswain once more rang 
among the galleries and ceilings of the abbey, and was followed 
by the deep, hoarse cry of — 


150 


THE PILOT. 


“ Away, there, you shore-draft ! Away, there, you board- 
ers ! Ahead ! heave ahead, sea-dogs ! ” 

The whole party moved from the building in the order that 
had been previously prescribed by Captain Manual, who acted 
as the marshal of the forces on the occasion. 

The pilot had conducted his surprise with so much skill and 
secrecy as to have secured every individual about the abbey, 
whether male or female, soldier or civilian ; and as it might be 
dangerous to leave any behind who could convey intelligence 
into the country, Griffith had ordered that every human being 
found in the building should be conducted to the cliffs, to be 
held in durance, at least, until the departure of the last boat 
to the cutter, which, he was informed, lay close in to the land, 
awaiting their reembarkation. 

The first object with both Griffith and Barnstable was to 
secure the embarkation of the fair cousins, and Barnstable 
proceeded instantly to the boats in order to hasten the prepa- 
rations that were necessary before they could receive these 
unexpected captives; the descent of the pilot having been 
made in such force as to require the use of all the frigate's 
boats, which were left riding in the outer edge of the surf 
awaiting the return of the expedition. A loud call from Barn- 
stable gave notice to the officer in command, and in a few 
moments the beach was crowded with the busy and active 
crews of all the small boats. Barnstable ordered the long, low 
barge of Captain Munson to be drawn upon the sand, it being 
peculiarly the boat of honor. The hands of fifty men were 
applied to the task, and it was announced to Colonel Howard 
and his wards that the little vessel was ready for their recep- 
tion. Manual had halted on the summit of the cliffs with the 
whole body of the marines, where he was busily employed in 
posting pickets and sentinels, and giving the necessary instruc- 
tions to his men to cover the embarkation of the seamen. The 
mass of the common prisoners, including the inferior domestics 
of the abbey and the men of Borroughcliffe, were also held in 


THE PILOT’S PARTING FROM ALICE DUNSCOMBE. 151 


the same place under a suitable guard ; but Colonel Howard 
and bis companion, attended by the ladies and their own 
maids, had descended the rugged path to the beach, and were 
standing passively on the sands when the intelligence that the 
boat waited for them was announced. 

“ Where is he ? ” said Alice Dunscombe, turning her head 
as if anxiously searching for some other than those around her. 

“ Where is who ?” inquired Barnstable. “ We are all here, 
and the boat awaits.” 

“ And will he tear me, even me, from the home of my 
infancy, the land of my birth and my affections ? ” 

“ I know not of whom you speak, madam ; but if it be of 
Mr. Griffith, he stands there, just without that cluster of sea- 
men.” 

Griffith, hearing himself thus named, approached the ladies, 
and for the first time since leaving the abbey addressed them. 

“ I hope I am already understood,” he said, “and that it is 
unnecessary for me to say that no female here is a prisoner ; 
though, should any choose to trust themselves on board our 
ship, I pledge to them the honor of an officer that they shall 
find themselves protected and safe.” 

“ Then will I not go,” said Alice. 

“It is not expected of you,” said Cecilia; “you have no 
tie to bind you to any here. Go then. Miss Alice, and be the 
mistress of St. Ruth until my return, or until Colonel Howard 
may declare his pleasure.” 

Alice did not appear to consider the matter as calling for 
further discussion at such a moment, for she gently returned 
the coloneTs leave-taking, and then gave her undivided atten- 
tion to her female friends. Cecilia wept bitterly on the shoul- 
der of her respected companion, giving vent to her regret at 
parting and her excited feelings at the same moment; and 
Katherine pressed to the side of Alice with the kindliness 
prompted by her warm heart. Their embraces were given and 
received in silence, and each of the young ladies moved toward 


152 


THE PILOT. 


the boat as she withdrew herself from the arms of Miss Duns- 
combe. Colonel Howard would not precede his wards, neither 
would he assist them into the barge. That attention they 
received from Barnstable, who, after seeing the ladies and 
their attendants seated, turned to the gentlemen and ob- 
served : 

“ The boat waits.” 

“ Stay ! ” cried Griffith ; “ Captain Borroughcliffe does not 
embark in that boat.” 

“ Ha ! sir ; am I to be herded with the common men ? 
Forget you that I have a commission of his Britannic Majesty, 
and that ” 

“ I forget nothing that a gentleman is bound to remember. 
Captain Borroughcliffe ; among other things, I recollect the 
liberality of your treatment to myself when a prisoner. The 
instant the safety of my command will justify such a step, not 
only you, but your men, shall be set at liberty.” 

Borroughcliffe started in surprise, but his feelings were too 
much soured by the destruction of those visions of glory in 
which he had been luxuriously indulging for the last day or 
two to admit of his answering. He swallowed his emotions, 
therefore, by a violent effort, and walked along the beach, 
affecting to whistle a low but lively air. 

“Well, then,” cried Barnstable, “all our captives are 
seated. The boat waits only for its officers.” 

Alice Dunscombe turned from the sea, and hastening to 
quit the bustling throng that were preparing for the embarka- 
tion of the rest of the party, she ascended the path that con- 
ducted her once more to the summit of those cliffs along which 
she had so often roved, gazing at the boundless element that 
washed their base with sensations that might have been pecu- 
liar to her own situation. 

The soldiers of Borroughcliffe, who were stationed at the 
head of the pass, respectfully made way ; nor did any of the 
sentinels of Manual heed her retiring figure, until she ap- 


THE PILOT’S PARTING FROM ALICE DUNSCOMBE. 153 

proached the rear-guard of the marines, who were commanded 
by their vigilant captain in person. 

“ Who goes there ?” cried Manual, advancing without the 
dusky group of soldiers as she approached them. 

“ One who possesses neither the power nor the inclination 
to do ye harm,” answered the solitary female ; “ 'tis Alice 
Dunscombe, retiring, by permission of your leader, to the 
place of her birth.” 

“ Ay,” muttered Manual, “ this is another of Griffith's un- 
military exhibitions of his politeness. Have you the counter- 
sign, madam, that I may know you bear a sufficient warrant 
to pass ? ” 

“ I have no other warrant besides my sex and my weakness, 
unless Mr. Griffith's knowledge that I have left him can be so 
considered.” 

“ The two former are enough,” said a voice, that proceeded 
from a figure which had hitherto stood unseen, shaded by the 
trunk of an oak that spread its naked arms above the spot 
where the guard was paraded. 

“ Whom have we here ?” Manual again cried. “ Come in ; 
yield, or you will be fired at.” 

“ What ! will the gallant Captain Manual fire on his own 
rescuer ?” said the pilot, with cool disdain, as he advanced from 
the shadow of the tree. “ The lady will consent to retrace 
her path for a short distance.” 

Alice followed his steps, in compliance with this request, 
until he had led her to a place, at some distance from the 
marines, where a tree had been prostrated by the late gale. 
She seated herself quietly on its trunk, and appeared to await 
with patience his own time for the explanation of his motives 
in seeking the interview. 

“ The hour is at hand, Alice, when we must part,” he at length 
commenced ; “ it rests with yourself whether it be forever.” 

“ Let it then be forever, John,” she returned, with a slight 
tremor in her voice. 


154 


THE PILOT. 


“ Alice,” said the pilot, rising in his agitation, “ I see but 
too well your object. But on this subject we can never agree. 
But our time is growing brief ; let us, then, talk of other 
things. This may be the last time that I shall ever put foot 
on the island of Britain.” 

Alice paused to struggle with the feelings excited by this 
remark before she pursued the discourse. But soon shaking 
off the weakness, she added, with a rigid adherence to that 
course which she believed to be her duty : 

“ And now, John, that you have landed, is the breaking up 
of a peaceful family, and the violence you have shown toward 
an aged man, a fit exploit for one whose object is the glory of 
which you have spoken ?” 

“ Think you that I have landed and placed my life in the 
hands of my enemies fo* so unworthy an object ? No, Alice ; 
my motive for this undertaking has been disappointed, and 
therefore will ever remain a secret from the world. But duty 
to my cause has prompted the step which you so unthinkingly 
condemn. This Colonel Howard has some consideration with 
those in power, and will answer to exchange for a better man. 
As for his wards, you forget their home, their magical home, 
is in America ; unless, indeed, they find it nearer at hand, 
under the proud flag of a frigate that is now waiting them in 
the offing.” 

“ You talk of a frigate,” said Alice, with sudden interest in 
the subject ; “is she your only means of escaping from your 
enemies ? Hasten, John, and seem not so proud and heed- 
less, for the hour may come when all your daring will not 
profit ye against the machinations of secret enemies. Dillon 
planned that expresses should journey to a seaport at the 
south, with the intelligence that your vessels were in these 
seas, in order that ships might be despatched to intercept your 
retreat.” 

The pilot lost his affected indifference as she proceeded, and 
before she ceased speaking his eye was endeavoring to antici- 


THE PILOT’S PARTING FROM ALICE DUNSCOMBE. 155 


pate her words by reading her countenance through the dusky 
medium of the starlight. 

“How know you this, Alice ?” he asked quickly. “And 
what vessel did he name ? ” 

“ Chance made me an unseen listener to their plan, and — 
I know not but I forget my duty to my prince — but, John, 
Tis asking too much of a weak woman to require that she shall 
see the man whom she once viewed with favor sacrificed, when 
a word of caution given in season might enable him to avoid 
the danger.” 

“ Once viewed with an eye of favor ! Is it then so ?” said 
the pilot, speaking in a vacant manner. “ But, Alice, heard 
ye the force of the ships, or their names ? ” 

“ Their names were certainly mentioned,” said Alice, with 
tender melancholy ; “ but the name of one far nearer to me 
was ringing in my ears, and has driven them from my mind.” 

“You are the same good Alice I once knew ! And my 
name was mentioned ? What said they of the pirate ? Had 
his arm stricken a blow that made them tremble in their abbey ? 
Did they call him coward, girl ? ” 

“ It was mentioned in terms that pained my heart as I lis- 
tened ; for it is ever too easy a task to forget the lapse of 
years, nor are the feelings of youth to be easily eradicated. I 
have now communicated all that it can profit you to know, 
and it is meet that we separate.” 

“ What, thus soon ? ” he cried, starting and taking her 
hand ; “ this is but a short interview, Alice, to precede so long 
a separation.” 

“Be it short, or be it long, it must now end,” she replied. 
“ Your companions are on the eve of departure, and I trust 
you would be one of the last who would wish to be deserted. 
If ye do visit England again, I hope it may be with altered 
sentiments so far as regards her interests. I wish ye peace, 
John, and the blessings of God, as ye may be found to deserve 
them.” 


156 


THE PILOT. 


“ I ask no further, unless it may be the aid of your gentle 
prayers. But the night is gloomy, and I will see you in 
safety to the abbey. " 

“It is unnecessary," she returned with womanly reserve. 
“ The innocent can he as fearless, on occasion, as the most val- 
iant among your warriors. But here is no cause for fear. I 
shall take a path that will conduct me in a different way from 
that which is occupied by your soldiers, and where I shall find 
none but Him who is ever ready to protect the helpless. Once 
more, John, I bid ye adieu." Her voice faltered as she con- 
tinued : “Ye will share the lot of humanity, and have your 
hours of care and weakness ; but at such moments ye can re- 
member those ye leave on this despised island, and perhaps 
among them ye may think of some whose interest in your wel- 
fare has been far removed from selfishness." 

“ God be with you, Alice ! " he said, touched with her emo- 
tion, and losing all vain images in more worthy feelings ; 
“ but I cannot permit you to go alone." 

“Here we part, John," she said firmly, “and forever! 
9 Tis for the happiness of both, for I fear we have but little 
in common." She gently wrested her hand from his grasp, 
and once more bidding him adieu, in a voice that was nearly 
inaudible, she turned and slowly disappeared, moving with 
lingering steps in the direction of the abbey. 

The first impulse of the pilot was certainly to follow, but 
the music of the guard on the cliffs at that moment sent forth 
its martial strains, and the whistle of the boatswain w T as heard 
winding its shrill call among the rocks, in those notes that his 
practised ear understood to be the last signal for embarking. 

Obedient to the summons, this singular man, in whose 
breast the natural feelings, that were now on the eve of a 
violent eruption, had so long been smothered by the visionary 
expectations of wild ambition, and perhaps of fierce resent- 
ments, pursued his course in deep abstraction toward the 
boats. 


THE DANGEROUS FOE. 


157 


CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE DANGEROUS EOE. 

The small cabin of the Alacrity was relinquished to Col- 
onel Howard and his wards, with their attendants. The boats 
were dropped astern, each protected by its own keeper ; and 
Griffith gave forth the mandate to fill the sails and steer 
broad off into the ocean. For more than an hour the cutter 
held her course in this direction, gliding gracefully through 
the glittering waters, rising and settling heavily on the long, 
smooth billows, as if conscious of the unusual burden that she 
was doomed to carry ; but at the end of that period her head 
was once more brought near the wind, and she was again held 
at rest, awaiting the dawn, in order to discover the position of 
the prouder vessel on which she was performing the humble 
duty of a tender. More than a hundred and fifty living men 
were crowded within her narrow limits ; and her decks pre- 
sented in the gloom, as she moved along, the picture of a mass 
of human heads. 

As the morning advanced, a deeper gloom was spread across 
the ocean, and the stars were gleaming in the heavens like 
balls of fire. But now a streak of pale light showed itself 
along the horizon, growing brighter, and widening at each 
moment, until long, fleecy clouds became visible, where nothing 
had been seen before but the dim base of the arc that over- 
hung the dark waters. While these beautiful transitions were 
taking place, a voice was heard crying, as if from the heavens : 

“ Sail — ho ! The frigate lies broad off to seaward, sir ! ” 

At the cry of “A sail!” the crew of the Alacrity had 
been aroused from their slumbers by the shrill whistle of the 
boatswain, and long before the admiring looks of the two 
cousins had ceased to dwell on the fascinating sight of morn- 
ing chasing night from her hemisphere, the cutter was again 


158 


THE PILOT. 


in motion to join her consort. It seemed but a moment 
before their little vessel was in, what timid females thought, 
a dangerous proximity to the frigate, under whose lee she 
slowly passed, in order to admit of the following dialogue 
between Griffith and his aged commander : 

“ I rejoice to see you, Mr. Griffith," cried the captain, 
who stood in the channel of his ship, waving his hat in the 
way of cordial greeting. “You are welcome back. Captain 
Manual — welcome, welcome, all of you, my boys ! as welcome 
as a breeze in the calm latitudes." As his eye, however, 
passed along the deck of the Alacrity, it encountered the 
shrinking figures of Cecilia and Katherine ; and a dark shade 
of displeasure crossed his decent features, while he added : 

“ How^s this, gentlemen ? The frigate of Congress is 
neither a ballroom nor a church that is to be thronged with 
women." 

The blushing sky had not exhibited a more fiery glow than 
gleamed in the fine face of Griffith for a moment ; but, strug- 
gling with his disgust, he answered with bitter emphasis : 

“ 'Twas the pleasure of Mr. Gray, sir, to bring off the pris- 
oners." 

“ Of Mr. Gray ! " repeated the captain, instantly losing 
every trace of displeasure in an air of acquiescence. “ Come 
to, sir, on the same tack with the ship, and I will hasten to 
order the accommodation-ladder rigged to receive our guests." 

By the time the Alacrity was hove to, with her head toward 
the frigate, the long line of boats that she had been towing 
during the latter part of the night were brought to her side 
and filled with men. A wild scene of unbridled merriment 
and gayety succeeded. Loud laughter was echoed from boat 
to boat as they glided by each other. The noise soon ceased, 
and the passage of Colonel Howard and his wards was effected 
with due decorum. Captain Munson, who had been holding 
a secret dialogue with Griffith and the pilot, received his un- 
expected guests with plain hospitality, but with an evident 


THE DANGEROUS FOE. 


159 


desire to be civil. He politely yielded to their service his two 
convenient state-rooms, and invited them to partake, in com- 
mon with himself, of the comforts of the great cabin. 

In the east a small white sail had been discovered since the 
opening of day, which was gradually rising above the water, 
and assuming the appearance of some size. 

The Alacrity , which vessel had been left under the com- 
mand of the junior lieutenant of the frigate, was quickly 
under w r ay ; and, making short stretches to windward, she 
soon entered the bank of fog and was lost to the eye. In the 
meantime the canvas of the ship was loosened, and spread 
leisurely, in order not to disturb the portion of the crew who 
were sleeping; and, following her little consort, she moved 
heavily through the water, bearing up against the dull breeze. 

The quiet of regular duty had succeeded to the bustle of 
making sail. At this moment of universal quiet, when noth- 
ing above low dialogues interrupted the dashing of the waves 
as they were thrown lazily aside by the bows of the vessel, the 
report of a light cannon burst out of the barrier of fog, and 
rolled by them on the breeze, apparently vibrating with the 
rising and sinking of the waters. 

“ There goes the cutter,” exclaimed Griffith, the instant 
the sound was heard. 

“ Surely,” said the captain, “ Somers is not so indiscreet as 
to scale his guns after the caution he has received ! ” 

“ No idle scaling is intended there,” said the pilot, strain- 
ing his eyes to pierce the fog, but soon turning away in disap- 
pointment at his inability to succeed; “that gun is shotted, 
and has been fired in the hurry of a sudden signal. Can 
your lookouts see nothing, Mr. Barnstable ?” 

The lieutenant of the watch hailed the man aloft, and re- 
ceived for answer that the fog intercepted the view, but that 
the sail in the east was a ship running large or before the wind. 

The pilot shook his head doubtingly at this information, 
but still he manifested a strong reluctance to relinquish the 


160 


THE PILOT. 


attempt of getting more to the southward. Again he com- 
muned with the commander of the frigate, apart from all ears ; 
and while they yet deliberated, a second report was heard, 
leaving no doubt that the Alacrity was firing signal guns for 
their particular attention. 

“ Perhaps,” said Griffith, “ he wishes to point out his posi- 
tion or to ascertain ours, believing we are lost like himself in 
the mist.” 

“ We have our compasses,” returned the doubting captain ; 
“ Somers has a meaning in what he says.” 

“ See ! ” cried Katherine, with girlish delight, “ see, my 
cousin ! see, Barnstable ! how beautifully that vapor is wreath- 
ing itself in clouds above the smoky line of fog ! It 
stretches already into the very heavens like a lofty pyramid ! ” 

Barnstable sprang lightly on a gun, and shouted, “ *Tis a tall 
ship ! Royals, sky-sails, and studding-sails all abroad ! She is 
within a mile of us, and comes down like a race-horse, with a 
spanking breeze dead before it ! Now we know why Somers 
is speaking in the mist ! ” 

“ Ay,” cried Griffith, “ and there goes the Alacrity , just 
breaking out of the fog, hovering in for the land ! ” 

“ There is a mighty hull under all that cloud of canvas. 
Captain Munson,” said the observant but calm pilot. “ It is 
time, gentlemen, to edge away to leeward.” 

The guns were cleared of their lumber and loosened, the 
bulkheads were knocked down, and the cabin relieved of its 
furniture ; and the gun-deck exhibited one unbroken line of 
formidable cannon arranged in all the order of a naval bat- 
tery ready to engage. 

Arm -chests were thrown open, and the decks strewed with 
pikes, cutlasses, pistols, and all the various weapons of board- 
ing. In short, the yards were slung, and every other arrange- 
ment was made with a readiness and dexterity that were actu- 
ally wonderful, though all was performed amid an appearance 
of disorder and confusion that rendered the ship another 


THE DANGEROUS FOE. 


161 


Babel during the continuance of the preparations. In a very- 
few minutes everything was Completed, and even the voices of 
the men ceased to be heard answering to their names, as they 
were mustered at their stations by their respective officers. 
Presently the dull, smoky boundary of the mist which rested 
on the water was pushed aside in vast volumes, and the long, 
taper spars that projected from the bowsprit of the strange 
ship issued from the obscurity, and were quickly followed by 
the whole of the enormous fabric to which they were merely 
light appendages. For a moment streaks of reluctant vapor 
clung to the huge floating pile ; but they were soon shaken 
off by the rapid vessel, and the whole of her black hull became 
distinct to the eye. 

“ One, two, three rows of teeth,” said Boltrope, the master 
of the frigate, deliberately counting the tiers of guns that 
bristled along the sides of the enemy ; “ a three-decker ! Jack 
Manly would show his stern to such a fellow ! And even the 
bloody Scotchman would run ! ” 

“ Hard up with your helm, quartermaster ! ” cried Captain 
Munson ; t( there is indeed no time to hesitate with such an 
enemy within a quarter of a mile. Turn the hands up, Mr. 
Griffith, and pack on the ship from her trucks to her lower 
studding-sail booms. Be stirring, sir, be stirring ! ” 

“ The fog rises,” cried Griffith ; “ give us but the wind for 
an hour, and we shall run her out of gunshot.” 

“ These nineties are very fast off the wind,” returned the 
captain, in a low tone that was intended only for the ears of 
his first lieutenant and the pilot, “ and we shall have a strug- 
gle for it.” 

The quick eye of the stranger was glancing over the move- 
ments of his enemy, while he answered : 

“ He finds we have the heels of him already ; he is making 
ready, and we shall be fortunate to escape a broadside. Let 
her yaw a little, Mr. Griffith ; touch her lightly with the helm. 
If we are raised, sir, we are lost.” 

11 


162 


THE PILOT. 


The captain sprang on the taffrail of his ship with the 
activity of a younger man, and in an instant he perceived the 
truth of the other’s conjecture. 

Both vessels now ran for a few minutes, keenly watching 
each other’s motions like two skilful combatants ; the English 
ship making slight deviations from the line of her course, and 
then, as her movements were anticipated by the other, turning 
as cautiously in the opposite direction, until a sudden and wide 
sweep of her huge bows told the Americans plainly on which 
tack to expect her. 

Both vessels whirled swiftly up to the wind, with their heads 
toward the land ; and as the huge black side of the three- 
decker, checkered with its triple batteries, frowned full upon 
her foe, it belched forth a flood of fire and smoke, accom- 
panied by a bellowing roar that mocked the surly moanings of 
the sleeping ocean. 

But the voice of Captain Munson was heard in the din, 
shouting, while he waved his hat earnestly in the required 
direction : 

** Meet her ! meet her with the helm, boy ! meet her, Mr. 
Griffith, meet her ! ” 

Griffith had so far anticipated this movement, as to have 
already ordered the head of the frigate to be turned in its 
former course, when, struck by the unearthly cry of the last 
tones uttered by his commander, he bent his head, and beheld 
the venerable seaman driven through the air, his hat still 
waving, his gray hair floating in the wind, and his eyes set in 
the wild look of death. 

“ He has been struck by a shot ! ” exclaimed the young 
man, rushing to the side of the ship, where he was just in time 
to see the lifeless body disappear in the waters that were dyed 
with blood. “ Lower away the boat, lower away the jolly-boat, 

the barge, the tiger, the ” 

*Tis useless,” interrupted the calm, deep voice of the pilot ; 
“ he has met a warrior’s end, and he sleeps in a sailor’s grave. 


THE DANGEROUS FOE. 


163 


The ship is getting before the wind again, and the enemy is 
keeping his vessel away.” 

The youthful lieutenant was recalled by these words to his 
duty, and reluctantly turned his eyes away from the bloody 
spot on the waters, which the busy frigate had already passed, 
to resume the command of the vessel with a forced composure. 
He had not yet brought his mind to the calmness that was so 
essential to discharge the duties which had thus suddenly and 
awfully devolved on him, when his elbow was lightly touched 
by the pilot, who had drawn closer to his side. 

“ The enemy appear satisfied with the experiment,” said the 
stranger; “and as we work the quicker of the two, he loses 
too much ground to repeat it, if he be a true seaman.” 

“ And yet as he finds we leave him so fast,” returned Grif- 
fith, “he must see that all his hopes rest in cutting us up 
aloft. I dread that he will come by the wind again, and lay 
us under his broadside ; we should need a quarter of an hour 
to run without his range, if he were anchored ! ” 

“ He plays a surer game — see you not the vessel we made in 
the eastern board shows the hull of a frigate ? ’Tis past a 
doubt that they are of the same squadron, and that the ex- 
presses have sent them in our wake. The English admiral has 
spread a broad clew, Mr. Griffith ; and, as he gathers in his 
ships, he sees that his game has been successful.” 

The faculties of Griffith had been too much occupied with 
the hurry of the chase to look at the ocean ; but startled at the 
information of the pilot, who spoke coolly, though like a man 
sensible to danger, he took the glass from the other, and with 
his own eye examined the different vessels in sight. It is 
certain that the experienced officer, whose flag was flying 
above the light sails of the three-decker, saw the critical situa- 
tion of the chase, and reasoned much in the same manner as 
the pilot, or the fearful expedient apprehended by Griffith 
would have been adopted. To the west lay the land ; to the 
east, bearing off the starboard bow of the American frigate, 


164 


THE PILOT. 


was the vessel first seen, and which now began to exhibit the 
hostile appearance of a ship-of-war, steering in a line converg- 
ing toward themselves, and rapidly drawing nigher ; while 
far in the northeast was a vessel as yet faintly discerned, whose 
evolutions could not be mistaken by one who understood the 
movements of nautical warfare. 

“ We are hemmed in effectually,” said Griffith, dropping the 
glass from his eye ; and I know not but our best course would 
be to haul in to the land, and, cutting everything light adrift, 
endeavor to pass the broadside of the flag-ship.” 

“ Provided she left a rag of canvas to do it with ! ” returned 
the pilot. “ Sir, Tis an idle hope ! She would strip your 
ship, in ten minutes, to her plank-sheers. Had it not been 
for a lucky wave on which so many of her shot struck and 
glanced upward, we should have nothing to boast of left from 
the fire she has already given. We must stand on, and drop 
the three-decker as far as possible.” 

“ But the frigates ? ” said Griffith ; “ what are we to do with 
the frigates ? ” 

“ Fight them!” returned the pilot, in a low, determined 
voice ; “ fight them ! Young man, I have borne the stars and 
stripes aloft in greater straits than this, and even with honor. 
Think not that my fortune will desert me now.” 

“ We shall have an hour of desperate battle.” 

“ On that we may calculate ; but I have lived through 
whole days of bloodshed. You seem not one to quail at the 
sight of an enemy.” 

“ Let me proclaim your name to the men,” said Griffith ; 
“ 'twill quicken their blood, and at such a moment be a host 
in itself.” 

“ They want it not,” returned the pilot, checking the hasty 
zeal of the other with his hand. “ I would be unnoticed, un- 
less I am known as becomes me. I will share your danger, 
but would not rob you of a tittle of your glory. Should we 
come to a grapple,” he continued, while a smile of conscious 


THE DANGEROUS FOE. 


165 


pride gleamed across liis face, “ I will give forth the word as 
a war cry ; and, believe me, these English will quail before it.” 

Griffith submitted to the stranger's will ; and, after they 
had deliberated further on the nature of their evolutions, he 
gave his attention again to the management of the vessel. 

Notwithstanding the ship-of-the-line was slowly sinking be- 
neath the distant waves, and in less than an hour from the 
time she had fired the broadside, no more than one of her 
three tiers of guns was visible from the deck of the frigate, 
she yet presented an irresistible obstacle against retreat to the 
south. On the other hand, the ship first seen drew so nigh as 
to render the glass no longer necessary in watching her move- 
ments. She proved to be a frigate, though one so materially 
lighter than the American as to have rendered her conquest 
easy, had not her two consorts continued to press on for the 
scene of battle with such rapidity. 

“ He is but a little fellow,” said Griffith to the pilot, who 
hovered at his elbow with a sort of fatherly interest in the 
other's conduct of the battle, “ though he carries a stout 
heart.” 

“ We must crush him at a blow,” returned the stranger ; 
“ not a shot must be delivered until our yards are locking.” 

“ I see him training his twelves upon us already ; we may 
soon expect his fire.” 

“ After standing the brunt of a ninety-gun ship,” observed 
the collected pilot, “ we shall not shrink from the broadside 
of a two-and- thirty.” 

“ Stand to your guns, men ! ” cried Griffith, through his 
trumpet ; “ not a shot is to be fired without the order.” 

This caution, so necessary to check the ardor of the seamen, 
was hardly uttered, before their enemy became wrapped in 
sheets of fire and volumes of smoke, as gun after gun hurled 
its iron missiles at their vessel in quick succession. Ten min- 
utes passed, the two vessels sheering close to each other every 
foot they advanced, during which time the crew of the Amer- 


166 


THE PILOT. 


ican were compelled by their commander to suffer the fire of 
their adversary without returning a shot. 

“ Let them have it ! " cried Griffith, in a voice that was 
heard in the remotest parts of the ship. 

The shout that burst from the seamen appeared to lift the 
decks of the vessel, and the affrighted frigate trembled like an 
aspen with the recoil of her own massive artillery, that shot 
forth a single sheet of flame, the sailors having disregarded, in 
their impatience, the usual order of firing. The effect of the 
broadside on the enemy was dreadful. During the few mo- 
ments in which the Americans were again loading their cannon, 
and the English were recovering from their confusion, the 
vessel of the former moved slowly past her antagonist, and was 
already doubling across her bows, when the latter was suddenly, 
and, considering the inequality of their forces, it may be added 
desperately, headed into her enemy. The two frigates grap- 
pled. The sudden and furious charge made by the English- 
man, as he threw his masses of daring seamen along his bow- 
sprit, and out of his channels, had nearly taken Griffith by 
surprise ; but Manual, who had delivered his first fire with the 
broadside, now did good service by ordering his men to beat 
back the intruders by a steady and continued discharge. 
Even the wary pilot lost sight of their other foes, in the high 
daring of the moment, and smiles of stern pleasure were ex- 
changed between him and Griffith, as both comprehended at 
a glance their advantages. 

“ Lash his bowsprit to our mizzenmast/' shouted the lieu- 
tenant, “ and we will sweep his decks as he lies." 

Twenty men sprang forward to execute the order, among the 
foremost of whom were Boltrope and the stranger. 

“ Ay, now he's our own ! " cried the busy master, “ and 
we will take an owner's liberties with him, and break him 
up." 

The sight of the Englishmen rushing onward with shouts 
and bitter menaces warmed the blood of Colonel Howard, who 


THE DANGEROUS FOE. 


167 


pressed to the side of the frigate and encouraged his friends, 
by his gestures and voice, to come on. 

“ Away with ye, old croaker ! " cried the master, seizing 
him by the collar ; “ away with ye to the hold, or I'll order 
you fired from a gun ! " 

“ Down with your arms, rebellious dog ! " shouted the 
colonel, carried beyond himself by the ardor of the fray ; “ down 
to the dust, and implore the mercy of your injured prince !" 

Invigorated by a momentary glow, the veteran grappled 
with his brawny antagonist ; but the issue of the short struggle 
was yet suspended, when the English, driven back by the fire 
of the marines and the menacing front that Griffith with his 
boarders presented, retreated to the forecastle of their own 
ship and attempted to return the deadly blows they were 
receiving in their hull from the cannon that Barnstable 
directed. A solitary gun was all they could bring to bear on 
the Americans ; but this, loaded with canister, was fired so 
near, as to send its glaring flame into the very faces of their 
enemies. The struggling colonel, who was already sinking 
beneath the arm of his foe, felt the rough grasp loosen from 
his throat at the flash, and the two combatants sunk powerless 
on their knees facing each other. 

“ How now, brother ! " exclaimed Bol trope, with a smile of 
grim fierceness ; “ some of that grist is gone to your mill, ha ! " 

No answer could, however, be given before the yielding 
forms of both fell to the deck, where they lay helpless, amid the 
din of the battle and the confusion of the eager combatants. 

As Griffith's stately vessel moved from the confusion she 
had caused, and left the dense cloud of smoke in which her 
helpless antagonist lay, the eye of the young man glanced 
anxiously toward the horizon, where he now remembered he 
had more foes to contend against. 

“We have shaken off the two-and -thirty most happily," he 
said to the pilot, who followed his motions with singular 
interest ; “ but here is another fellow sheering in for us, who 


168 


THE PILOT. 


shows as many ports as ourselves, and who appears inclined for 
a close interview ; besides, the hull of the ninety is rising 
again, and I fear she will be down but too soon.” 

“ We must- keep the use of our braces and sails,” returned 
the pilot, “ and on no account close with the other frigate ; 
we must play another game, sir, and fight this new adversary 
with our heels as well as with our guns.” 

“'Tis time, then, that we were busy, for he is shortening 
sail ; and, as he nears so fast, we may expect to hear from him 
every minute. What do you propose, sir ?” 

“ Let him gather in his canvas,” returned the pilot ; “ and 
when he thinks himself snug, we can throw out a hundred 
men at once upon our yards and spread everything alow and 
aloft : we may then draw ahead of him by surprise. If we can 
once get him in our wake, I have no fears of dropping 
them all.” 

“A stern chase is a long chase,” cried Griffith, “and the 
thing may do. Clear up the decks, here, and carry down the 
wounded.” 

The ship which the American frigate had now to oppose 
was a vessel of near her own size and equipage, and when 
Griffith looked at her again he perceived that she had made 
her preparations to assert her equality in manful fight. 

Her sails had been gradually reduced to the usual quantity, 
and, by certain movements on her decks, the lieutenant and 
his constant attendant, the pilot, well understood that she 
only wanted to lessen her distance a few hundred yards to 
begin the action. 

“ Now spread everything,” whispered the stranger. 

Griffith applied the trumpet to his mouth, and shouted in a 
voice that was carried even to the enemy : “Let fall, out 
with your booms — sheet home— hoist away of everything ! ” 

The inspiring cry was answered by a universal bustle ; fifty 
men flew out on the dizzy heights of the different spars, while 
broad sheets of canvas rose as suddenly along the masts as if 


THE DAHGrEROUS FOE. 


169 


some mighty bird were spreading its wings. The Englishman 
instantly perceived his mistake, and he answered the artifice 
by a roar of artillery. Griffith watched the effects of the 
broadside with an absorbing interest as the »shot whistled 
above his head ; but when he perceived his masts untouched, 
and the few unimportant ropes only that were cut, he replied to 
the uproar with a burst of pleasure. At the next instant the 
spars and masts of their enemy exhibited a display of men 
similar to their own, when Griffith again placed the trumpet 
to his mouth and shouted aloud : 

“ Give it to them ; drive them from their yards, boys ; scat- 
ter them with grape— unreeve their rigging ! ” 

The crew of the American wanted but little encouragement 
to enter on this experiment with a hearty good-will, and the 
close of his cheering words was uttered amid the deafening 
roar of his own cannon. The pilot had mistaken the skill 
and readiness of their foe ; for, notwithstanding the disadvan- 
tageous circumstances under which the Englishman increased 
his sail, the duty was steadily and dexterously performed. 

“ We find our equal here,” said Griffith to the stranger. 
“ The ninety is heaving up again like a mountain, and, if we 
continue to shorten sail at this rate, she will soon be down 
upon us.” 

“ You say true, sir,” returned the pilot, musing ; “ the 
man shows judgment as well as spirit ; but ” 

He was interrupted by Merry, who rushed from the forward 
part of the vessel, his whole face betokening the eagerness of 
his spirit, and the importance of his intelligence : 

“ The breakers ! ” he cried, when nigh enough to be heard 
amid the din ; “ we are running dead on a ripple, and the sea 
is white not two hundred yards ahead.” 

The pilot jumped on a gun, and, bending to catch a glimpse 
through the smoke, he shouted, in those clear, piercing tones 
that could be heard among the roar of the cannon : Port, 
port your helm ! We are in the Devil's Grip ! Pass up the 


170 


THE PILOT. 


trumpet, sir. Port your helm, fellow ! Give it them, boys — 
give it to the proud English dogs ! 99 

Griffith unhesitatingly relinquished the symbol of his rank, 
fastening his own firm look on the calm but quick eye of the 
pilot, and gathering assurance from the high confidence he 
read in the countenance of the stranger. For ten breathless 
minutes longer the pilot continued to hold an uninterrupted 
sway, during which the vessel ran swiftly by ripples and 
breakers, by streaks of foam and darker passages of deep 
water, when he threw down his trumpet and exclaimed : 

“ What threatened to be our destruction has proved our sal- 
vation. Keep yonder hill crowned with wood, one point open 
from the church-tower at its base, and steer east by north ; 
you will run through these shoals on that course in an hour, 
and by so doing you will gain five leagues of your enemy, who 
will have to double their trail." 

The promised hour carried the ship safely through all the 
dangers, which were much lessened by daylight ; and, by the 
time the sun had begun to fall over the land, Griffith, who had 
not quitted the deck during the day, beheld his vessel once 
more cleared of the confusion of the chase and battle, and 
ready to meet another foe. At this period he was summoned 
to the cabin at the request of the ship's chaplain. Delivering 
the charge of the frigate to Barnstable, who had been his 
active assistant no less in their subsequent labors than in the 
combat, he hastily divested himself of the vestiges of the fight 
and proceeded to obey the repeated and earnest call. 


CHAPTER XIX. 

IN SAFETY. 


Griffith had not lost sight of Cecilia and her cousin dur- 
ing the occurrences of that eventful day ; on the contrary, the 


IN SAFETY. 


171 


instant that the crew were called from their guns he had issued 
an order to replace the bulkheads of the cabin and to arrange 
its furniture for their accommodation, though the higher and 
imperious duties of his station had precluded his attending to 
their comfort in person. He expected, therefore, to find the 
order of the room restored, but he was by no means prepared 
to encounter the scene he was now to witness. 

Between two sullen cannon, which gave such an air of sin- 
gular wildness to the real comfort of the cabin, was placed a 
large couch, on which the colonel was lying, evidently near his 
end. Cecilia was weeping by his side, her dark ringlets fall- 
ing in unheeded confusion around her pale features, and sweep- 
ing in their rich exuberance the deck on which she kneeled. 
Katherine leaned tenderly ov^r the form of the dying veteran, 
while her dark, tearful eyes seemed to express self-accusation 
blended with deep commiseration . 1 

Barnstable, who had also been summoned, appeared before 
his friend deemed it discreet to disturb the reflections of the 
veteran by addressing him. When the entrance of the young 
sailor was announced, the colonel roused himself and addressed 
his wondering listeners. 

“ Here, then, gentlemen, you both obtain the reward of 
your attentions. Let the reverend divine hear you pronounce 
the marriage vows while I have strength to listen, that I may 
be a witness against ye in heaven should ye forget their 
tenor.” 

“Hot now, not now,” murmured Cecilia ; “oh, ask it not 
now, my uncle ! ” 

“If it has pleased Cod to remove your guardian,” said 
the colonel, “let his place be supplied by those he wills to suc- 
ceed him.” 

Cecilia no longer hesitated, but arose slowly from her knees, 
and offered her hand to Griffith with an air of forced resigna- 
tion. Katherine submitted to be led by Barnstable to her 


1 sorrow for the distresses of another. 


172 


THE PILOT. 


side ; and the chaplain, in obedience to an expressive sig- 
nal from the eye of Griffith, opened the Prayer Book, and 
commenced reading in trembling tones the marriage service. 
When the benediction was pronounced, the head of Cecilia 
dropped on the shoulder of her husband, where she wept vio- 
lently for a moment, and then, resuming her place at the 
couch, she once more knelt at the side of her uncle. Kather- 
ine received the warm kiss of Barnstable passively, and returned 
to the spot whence she had been led. 

Colonel Howard succeeded in raising his person to witness 
the ceremony, and had answered to each prayer with a fervent 
a Amen. w He fell back with the last words, and a look of sat- 
isfaction shone in his aged and pallid features, that declared 
the interest he had taken in the scene. 

“ I thank you, my children,” he at length uttered ; “ I 
thank you, for I know how much you have sacrificed to my 
wishes. Young gentlemen, I have given you all that a fond 
old man had to bestow — deal tenderly with them — we have not 
properly understood each other — I had mistaken both you and 
Mr. Christopher Dillon, I believe ; perhaps I may have also 
mistaken my duty to America — but I was too old to change 
my politics or my religion — I — I — I loved the king — God bless 
him ! ” 

His words became fainter and fainter as he proceeded, and 
the breath deserted his body with a benediction on his lips. 

The body was instantly borne into "a state-room by the at- 
tendants, and Griffith and Barnstable supported their brides 
into the after-cabin, where they left them seated on the sofa 
that lined the stern of the ship, weeping bitterly in each 
other's arms. 

The Alacrity had been unnoticed during the arduous chase 
of the frigate, and, favored by daylight and her light draught 
of water, she had easily effected her escape also among the 
mazes of the shoals. She was called down to her consort by 
signal, and received the necessary instructions how to steer 


IN SAFETY. 


173 


during the approaching night. The British ships were now 
only to be faintly discovered, like small white specks on the 
dark sea ; and, as it was known that a broad barrier of shallow 
water lay between them, the Americans no longer regarded 
their presence as at all dangerous. 

When the necessary orders had been given, and the vessels 
were duly prepared, they were once more brought up to the 
wind, and their heads pointed in the direction of the coast of 
Holland. All night the frigate continued to dash through 
the seas with a sort of sullen silence that was soothing to the 
melancholy of Cecilia and Katherine, neither of whom closed 
an eye during that gloomy period. In addition to the scene 
they had witnessed, their feelings were harrowed by the knowl- 
edge that, in conformity to the necessary plans of Griffith, 
and in compliance with the new duties he had assumed, they 
were to separate in the morning for an indefinite period, and 
possibly forever. 

With the appearance of light, the boatswain sent his rough 
summons through the vessel, and the crew were collected in 
solemn silence in her gangways to “bury the dead.” The 
bodies of Boltrope, of one or two of her inferior officers, and of 
several common men who had died of their wounds in the 
night, were, with the usual formalities, committed to the deep. 

When the sun had gained the meridian, the body of Colonel 
Howard was transferred to the Alacrity, whither it was fol- 
lowed by Griffith and his cheerless bride, while Katherine 
hung fondly from a window of the ship, suffering her own 
scalding tears to mingle with the brine of the ocean. After 
everything was arranged, Griffith waved his hand to Barn- 
stable, who had succeeded to the command of the frigate, and 
the yards of the latter were braced sharp to the wind, when 
she proceeded to the dangerous experiment of forcing her way 
to the shore of America by attempting the pass of the Straits 
of Dover, and running the gauntlet through the English ships 
that crowded their own Channel. 


174 


THE PILOT. 


In the meantime the Alacrity drew in swiftly toward the 
shores of Holland. A small light boat was lowered into 
the sea, when the young sailor and the pilot, who had found 
his way into the cutter unheeded, and almost unseen, ascended 
from the small cabin together. The stranger glanced his eyes 
along the range of coast, as if he would ascertain the exact 
position of the vessel, and then turned them on the sea and 
the western horizon to scan the weather. Finding nothing in 
the appearance of the latter to induce him to change his 
determination, he offered his hand to Griffith, and said : 

“ Here we part. As our acquaintance has not led to all we 
wished, let it be your task, sir, to forget we ever met.” 

Griffith bowed respectfully, but in silence. 

Without heeding the wondering crew, who were collected as 
curious spectators of his departure, the stranger bowed hastily 
to Griffith, and, springing into the boat, he spread her light 
sails with the readiness of one who had nothing to learn even 
in the smallest matters of his daring profession. 

Many wild and extraordinary conjectures 1 were uttered 
among the crew of the cutter, as she slowly drew in toward 
her friendly haven, on the appearance of the mysterious pilot 
during their last hazardous visit to the coast of Britain, and 
on his still more extraordinary disappearance, as it were, amid 
the waves of the North Sea. 

As we are not disposed to part so coldly from those with 
whom we have long held amicable intercourse, we shall there- 
fore proceed to state briefly the outlines of that which befell 
them in after-life. 

Following the course of the frigate, then, toward those 
shores from which, perhaps, we should never have suffered our 
truant pen to have wandered, we shall commence the brief 
task with Barnstable, and his laughing, weeping, gay, but 
affectionate bride — the black-eyed Katherine. The ship fought 
her way gallantly through the swarms of the enemy's cruisers. 


IN SAFETY. 


175 


to the port of Boston, where Barnstable was rewarded for his 
services by promotion, and a more regular authority to com- 
mand his vessel. 

The boy Merry proved to be in his meridian what his youth 
had so strongly indicated, a fearless, active, and reckless 
sailor, and his years might have extended to this hour had he 
not fallen untimely in a duel with a foreign officer. 

The first act of Captain Manual, after landing once more 
on his native soil, was to make interest to he again restored to 
the line of the army. He encountered but little difficulty in 
this attempt, and was soon in possession of the complete enjoy- 
ment of that which his soul had so long pined for, i( a steady 
drill.” 

He was in time to share the splendid successes which termi- 
nated the war, and also to participate in his due proportion of 
the misery of the army. His merits were not forgotten, how- 
ever, in the reorganization of the forces, and he followed both 
St. Clair and his more fortunate successor, Wayne, in the 
Western campaigns . 1 

Griffith and his mourning bride conveyed the body of 
Colonel Howard in safety to one of the principal towns in 
Holland, where it was respectfully and sorrowfully interred, 
after which the young man removed to Paris with a view to 
erasing the sad images which the hurried and melancholy 
events of the few preceding days had left on the mind of his 
lovely companion. From this place Cecilia held communion, 
by letter, with her friend Alice Dunscombe ; and such suit- 
able provision was made in the affairs of her late uncle as the 
times would permit. 

It might have been some twelve years after the short cruise 
which it has been our task to record in this volume, that Grif- 
fith, who was running his eyes carelessly over a file of news- 
papers, was observed by his wife to drop the bundle from before 
his face, and pass his hand slowly across his brow, like a man 

1 1791, in Ohio, against the Miami Indians. 


176 


THE PILOT. 


who had been suddenly struck with renewed impressions of 
some former event, or who was endeavoring to recall to his 
mind images that had long since faded. 

“ See you anything in that paper to disturb you, Griffith ?" 
said the still lovely Cecilia. 

“ Cecilia, do you remember the man who accompanied 
Manual and myself to St. Ruth the night we became your 
uncle's prisoners, and who afterward led the party which lib- 
erated us and rescued Barnstable ?" 

“Surely I do ; he was the pilot of your ship, it was then 
said ; and I remember the shrewd soldier we entertained even 
suspected that he was one greater than he seemed." 

“ The soldier surmised the truth. But you saw him not on 
that fearful night when he carried us through the shoals ; and 
you could not witness the calm courage with which he guided 
the ship into those very channels again, while the confusion 
of battle was among us." 

“ I heard the dreadful din, and I can easily imagine the 
horrid scene," returned his wife, her recollections chasing the 
color from her cheeks. 

“ This man is now dead," said Griffith. 

“ Can there have been any connection between him and 
Alice Dunscombe ? " said Cecilia, in a thoughtful manner. 
“ She met him alone, at her own request, the night Katherine 
and myself saw you in your confinement. The letter I 
received yesterday from Alice was sealed with black, and I was 
pained with the melancholy though gentle manner in which 
she wrote of passing from this world into another." 

“ Cecilia, your conjecture is surely true. Fifty things rush 
to my mind at that one surmise — his acquaintance with that 
particular spot, his early life, his expedition, his knowledge of 
the abbey, all confirm it. He, altogether, was indeed a man 
of marked character." 

“Why has he not been among us?" asked Cecilia; “he 
appeared $eypted to our cause." 


IN SAFETY. 


177 


“ His devotion to America proceeded from desire of distinc- 
tion, his ruling passion, and perhaps a little also from resent- 
ment at some injustice which he claimed to have suffered from 
his own countrymen. He was a man, and not, therefore, 
without foibles ; 1 but they were most daring, and deserving 
of praise. Neither did he at all merit the obloquy 2 that he 
received from his enemies. He is now dead ; but had he lived 
in times and under circumstances when his consummate 
knowledge of his profession, his cool, deliberate, and even des- 
perate courage, could have been exercised in a regular and 
well-supported navy, and had the habits of his youth better 
qualified him to have borne meekly the honors he acquired in 
his age, he would have left behind him no name in its list that 
would have descended to the latest posterity of his adopted 
countrymen with greater renown.” 

“ Why, Griffith,” exclaimed Cecilia, in a little surprise, “ you 
are zealous in his cause ! Who is he ? ” 

“ A man who held a promise of secrecy while living, which 
is not at all released by his death. It is enough to know that 
he was greatly instrumental in procuring our sudden union, 
and that our happiness might have been wrecked in the voy- 
age of life had we not met the unknown pilot of the German 
Ocean.” 

* weaknesses, failings. 3 reproach. 


12 


f 


A GLOSSARY OF NAUTICAL TERMS. 

\ < 


aback, 

bend, 

best bower, 
binnacle, 

bite, also bight, 
boarders, 

boatswain, 

bolt-ropes, 

booms, 
bulkhead, 
cabin’s hood, 
canister, 

capstan, 

chains, 


clew up, 

cockswain* 

courses, 

cutlass, 

cut- water, 
forecastle, 

fore-reaches, 

frigate, 


backward against the mast, 
to fasten, 
heaviest anchor. 

a box containing the compass of a ship, and a light 
to show it by night, 
a bend in the seacoast forming a bay. 
officers and men detailed to attack an enemy by board- 
ing. 

a subordinate officer who has charge of .the boats, etc. 
ropes to which the edges of the sails are sewed to 
strengthen them. 

long poles used to extend the bottom of sails, 
a partition in a ship to form separate apartments, 
a covering over entrance to cabin, 
a collection of small projectiles, put in cases, to be 
discharged from cannon, 
a revolving column used for heaving cables, etc. 
strong bars of iron, bolted at the lower end to the ship’s 
side, and at the upper end secured to the iron 
straps of the wooden blocks, by which the shrouds 
supporting the masts are extended, 
to draw up to the yard by means of the rigging used 
for furling. 

the person who steers or pulls the after oar in a boat, 
the principal sails of a ship. 

a curved, basket-hilted sword of strong and simple 
make. 

the projecting part of a ship’s prow that cuts the water, 
that part of the ship forward of the fore-rigging, where 
the sailors live, 
shoots ahead in coming about. 

a vessel larger than a sloop and smaller than a ship-of- 
the-line. 


180 


A GLOSSARY OF NAUTICAL TERMS. 


gasket, 

ground tackle, 
gun-deck, 
half-hitches, 
hove to, 
jolly-boat, 

kedge, 

kentledge, 

larboard, 

lee, 

legs, 

log. 


luff, 

marline, 

messmates, 

midshipman, 

offing, 

pike, 

.plank-sheer, 

port, 

quartermaster, 

reef, 

reef-point, 


royal, 

scaling of guns, 
schooner, 
sea-dog, 
sennit, 

sheer to port, 


a flat cord fastened to the sail, 
a general term used for the anchors, cables, etc. 
deck where the battery is carried, 
a knot or noose in a rope for fastening it to a ring, etc. 
to wait or linger. 

a small boat, about four feet wide and twelve feet long, 
usually hoisted at the stern of a vessel, 
to move by being pulled along with the aid of an 
anchor. 

pigs of iron for ballast, laid on the bottom of the ship, 
the left-hand side of a ship looking toward the bow ; 
opposite the starboard. 

the side opposite to that against which the wind 
blows. 

distance a vessel sails in tacking before changing her 
direction. 

an apparatus for measuring the rate of a ship’s motion 
through the water ; also the daily record of a ship’s 
progress. 

to turn the head of a ship toward the wind, 
a small line of two strands, a little twisted, 
those eating at the same table. 

a naval cadet who transmits orders of superior officers, 
that part of the sea where there is deep water and a 
good distance from shore. 

a sharp-pointed weapon consisting of a long shaft or 
handle with an iron head. 

a timber carried around the ship which covers and 
secures the timber-heads, 
left side (larboard), opposite to starboard, 
a petty officer attending helm, signals, etc. 
to reduce the extent of sail. 

a short piece of rope fastened in the middle in each 
eyelet-hole of a reef-band to secure the sail in 
reefing. 

a small sail above the topgallant-sail, 
adjusting the sights to the guns, 
a fore-and-aft rigged vessel with two masts, 
a sailor who has been long afloat, 
a braided cord, 
to go toward the port side. 


/ 

A GLOSSARY OF NAUTICAL TERMS. 181 


sheet, 

a rope fastened to one or both of the lower corners of 
a sail. 

ship-of-the-line, 

a ship large enough to take a place in a line of battle ; 
battle-ship. 

shore-draft, 

shrouds, 

persons drawn to go on shore-duty, 
a set of ropes reaching from the masthead to the sides 
of the vessel. 

stays, 

stern-sheets, 

a strong rope supporting a mast. 

part of a boat between the stern and aftmost seat of 
the rowers. 

studding-sails, 

light sails set outside of a principal sail in full winds 
to increase speed. 

sweeps, 

a large oar used in small vessels in a calm to propel 
the craft. 

taffrail, 

trip the anchor, 
undertow, 

the rail around a ship’s stern, 
to loose from the bottom. 

a current of water below the surface moving in a 
direction different from the surface current. 

unreeve, 

wales, 

to take a rope out of a block. 

strong planks extending throughout the entire length 
of a ship’s sides. 

whale-boat, 

a long, narrow boat, sharp at both ends, and fitted for 
steering with an oar as well as a rudder. 

yard, 

a long, slender piece of timber suspended upon the mast, 
by which a sail is extended. 

yaw, 

steer wild out of the true course. 











































































































































































































































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